Summer Flings
by singabella
Summary: Bella goes on a summer vacation to the beaches of Florida with her friends, Angela and Alice. What will happen to them when Alice decides they should try to have a summer fling to break up their nonexistent love lives? AU/AH Read and review please.
1. Chapter 1

**Day 1**

**Bella POV**

Alice, Angela, and I had just reached our final destination of Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Two weeks ago we graduated from college in Seattle, Washington, and this was our parents' graduation gift to us before we would all head off to respective jobs. I was looking forward to having a few weeks of relaxation and enjoying the sunshine. The weather here would definitely make for a nice change in comparison with the typical cloudy and rainy days back home.

Angela had received a job working as an elementary school teacher in Forks, Washington where we had all grown up together. She was excited about getting to teach little children and loved the fact that she could remain in a small town because big cities were never her cup of tea. Once we arrived back home, she was planning to get her new classroom all set up for the school year.

Alice, on the other hand, had higher ambitions. Her plan was to start her own fashion design company. Currently, she didn't have enough money saved up to really start her own business, so she recently acquired a position working for an interior design company. I couldn't remember the name of the company off the top of my head, but from what I remember Alice telling me about it, the company was founded in Seattle, but had a few branches around the country. Alice was given the option of which location she wanted to work in and would have to give her decision at the end of the month. She was happy with this job because it was something she thought she would enjoy and even though it's not her plan for life, it would give her a good enough salary that she would be able to start up her own business after a few years.

We had just gotten off the plane and were making our way toward the baggage claim. I needed to go to the restroom, so I called out to Alice and Angela, "Hey guys, I'll meet you at the baggage claim in a few minutes."

"Sure," Angela said. "We'll grab your bags if we see them before you get over there."

"Thanks," I replied making my way through the crowd to the restroom.

After finishing up and washing my hands in the restroom, I popped my ear buds in and started listening to my newest play list that I put on my iPod before we left for the beach. I began walking toward the baggage claim thinking of my future. I didn't really have what most people would call a job. Before I graduated from college with my degree in English Literature, I began writing a story. With my friends' encouragement, I took a rough draft of it to a local publishing company. The publishing company loved what I had so far and they wanted me to continue writing it with a few changes here and there, namely some romance in the book. Once I complete the story, they plan to publish it for me. I was still shocked that I might be able to write books for a living. It would definitely qualify as my dream job. I just need to find some inspiration to make the necessary changes and I hoped that a new environment and some relaxation would help bring that about.

I was in my own little world thinking about how I could put some form of romance in my book without having much experience in that department when I ran into something hard. I ended up bouncing off, falling down on my butt, and dropping my iPod along with all the contents in my bag. How embarrassing I thought to myself looking up to see who or what I managed to hit. My breath caught when I saw him.

Looking down at me was none other than a Greek god. He was tall and well built with messy bronze hair. Not to mention his eyes; they were like beautiful emerald pools that I could easily fall into and never come back. I noticed that he was saying something to me and shook my head a little to snap myself out of my unabashed gawking. I just keep embarrassing myself more and more.

"Are you okay?" the god asked.

I was having trouble forming words now. I finally managed to nod my head in an affirmative gesture and wished I could crawl under a rock for a hundred years.

He offered me a hand up and I reached out to take it. Once I was back on my two feet, I told him, "I'm so sorry for running into you. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going and…"

"It's no problem at all," he spoke. "I'm Edward Cullen and it's nice to meet you…"

"Bella… Bella Swan," I told him shyly.

Edward helped me gather all my belongings that I had dropped on the floor when I barged right into him.

"Bella!" a voice called out.

I looked around to see Alice and Angela heading my way. "We've been looking all over for you," Angela said when they reached us.

"Well, I guess I see why you never made it to the baggage claim," Alice spoke eyeing Edward.

I felt my face turn red as I blushed with that comment. "Alice, Angela, this is Edward. Edward this is Alice and Angela," I introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," Edward softly spoke shaking each of their hands. "Well, I really should be off to find my brother. Maybe I'll see you again sometime," he said looking toward me at the last part.

"Bye," we all said.

"Bella, he certainly is good looking," Angela told me.

"Be right back," Alice said before darting off into the crowds.

"What's gotten into her?" I asked.

"Who knows," Angela replied.

Alice came back a couple minutes later looking mighty proud of herself.

"What did you do?" I asked suspiciously.

"I'll tell you later," Alice responded with a mischievous glint in her eye.

A little while later, we finished up the paperwork at the rental car counter and were driving toward the hotel where we would be staying for a few weeks.

"How much further to our hotel?" asked Angela.

"The GPS says it's another couple of miles," replied Alice. "I still don't know why you guys wouldn't let me drive a Porsche."

"As much as I like your dream car Alice, there is no way it would fit all of our luggage," I answered.

Alice didn't like the fact she couldn't rent her flashy dream car, so insisted that she at least get to pick out the rental car we would take. We ended up with a black Lexus SUV Hybrid that recently came out.

I watched out of the passenger window as we pulled into the beach resort where we would be staying. The outside of the place already had that tropical feel to it. The three of us parked and walked in to the reception area to check in and get our room key. Since it wasn't too busy at the time, we were able to walk up immediately.

"Reservation for Swan," I said watching the girl type it into the computer.

"I have a room available courtside with the two beds as you requested," told the receptionist.

"But I reserved a room beachside," I said wondering how my luck once again failed me.

"No one has checked out of any of those rooms today, so I'm afraid they are all booked up," answered the girl. "The next best rooms we have available will be the ones that are courtside."

"Okay, I guess we have to accept that," I answered while watching Alice and Angela's faces fall a bit.

We were given our room keys and headed out the door back to our car in order to park closer to our room. Once we drove around to the side, we found a spot to park in and then started the task of unloading the luggage from the car, most of it belonging to Alice. Angela grabbed a cart to place it all in so we could just make a single trip from the vehicle.

All the bags were placed on the cart and we made our way through the edge of the courtyard area toward the elevators following the directions given to us by the concierge. The layout of the resort had buildings placed in a square formation without being connected to one another. There were many paths that could be taken amongst the different buildings and it all opened up into an amazing area that was full of greenery and various pools. I loved the beauty of the place and couldn't wait to explore it more fully later on.

After reaching the elevators, we rode up to the third floor on the South side of the resort. Our room ended up about midway along the floor. After walking in I glanced around the place along with Alice and Angela. It was certainly something that I could imagine staying in for a lengthy period of time. I walked into a living area with a sofa and loveseat angled toward a large flat screen television. There were three doors that I could see from the living room. Alice went over to open the first one up to reveal a large bathroom. The other two doors led to the bedrooms. We had decided earlier that Angela could have a bed to herself, while Alice and I would share the other bedroom.

"Hey, I'm going to hop in the shower real quick," Angela told us.

"Sure," said Alice. "Why don't we all get cleaned up and go down to the beach for a few hours before it gets too dark?"

"Sounds good to me," I said.

After getting showers, we all got ready to go down to the beach. Alice was wearing a sundress. She attempted to get me in a dress, but I managed to hold my ground this time. I came out wearing some Capri pants with a green blouse. Angela has somehow avoided the focus of Alice's fashion advice on all things and got to be comfortable in some shorts and shirt.

As we made our way to the beach, I could tell Alice was deep in thought. Before I could ask her about it she spoke, "I think we need to try to find a nice guy to date for the time that we're staying here."

"What!?" Angela exclaimed.

"Well, none of us have had a decent relationship throughout school," explained Alice. "Particularly you, Bella."

"Alice, I'm just not interested in dating," I said thinking of all the crappy dates I've been on in the past few years.

"That's only because you haven't tried to find a decent guy to date," told Alice. "If you would just open yourself up to possibility of finding someone that is worth your time, you might actually be happy for a change."

"I'm happy," I grumbled. Then something clicked. "Alice, you said you would tell us what you did back at the airport."

"Well, I did it for you Bella," Alice began hesitantly.

"What exactly did you do for me?" I asked trying to keep my temper under control.

"I might have given Edward your phone number," Alice responded softly.

"You did what!?" I blurted out.

"I could tell that you liked him, so I decided to help you out and give him your number," Alice spoke.

"I can't believe you," I grumbled. "I'm perfectly happy."

"Sure, you say that you're happy enough," replied Alice, "but not as happy as you would be if you found someone to fall in love with."

"You can't possibly believe that I'm going to fall in love with someone over the next few weeks," I scoffed. "Angela, you _do_ see my reasoning don't you?"

I looked over at Angela, who seemed to be lost in thought. When she finally spoke up, I thought my ears deceived me. "I like Alice's idea," she said quietly. After seeing my questioning look, she further alliterated. "It's just that sometimes I feel lonely, like I'm missing a part of me. This is our last vacation together before we head off to work, and I would like to make the best of it. So maybe we should try to at least be aware enough of our environment to check to see if there's anybody around that could be date-worthy."

"I knew you would understand!" squealed Alice.

At that point I knew that I might as well give in before Alice forced me upon some unsuspecting guy. I sighed, "Okay, I won't oppose going out with someone during our stay, but don't you dare force a guy on me Alice Brandon."

"Yay!" squealed Alice. "Let's get started."

I groaned and let her drag me and Angela the rest of the way to the beach. It was already getting close to sunset, so the beach wasn't very crowded. Angela left the two of us deciding that she wanted to walk along the water's edge for a while toward a pier that we could see further down. Alice decided that she wanted to check out the lifeguards on duty around this area of the beach. I made a face at her, but followed along anyway.

Walking in the opposite direction that Angela had taken, we saw a couple of lifeguards. Luckily they weren't anything special, so Alice didn't try to embarrass me around them. I was running through scenarios in my head of Alice tripping me intentionally to get a lifeguard's attention. I imagine the only thing worse that my klutziness coming out in that way would be for me to almost drown in the ocean. If I did see someone hot on duty, I think it would be better if I just stay on land. God only knows what could happen to me in the ocean.

Alice brought me back to real life by pointing out that we should go back in the other direction to find Angela. It was getting dark as we walked in the direction Angela had taken toward the pier. I was getting hungry, so Alice and I planned on heading out to a restaurant once we met back up with Angela. We saw the pier and began walking toward the end where we saw Angela standing next to someone. Walking closer I saw that Angela was deep in conversation with a guy.

"Wait! Wait!" said Alice. "We don't want to interrupt them."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N I don't own twilight, but wouldn't it be nice if I did?

**Summer Flings Chapter 2  
**

**Angela POV**

After walking to the end of the pier to take in the sunset and light sea breeze, I noticed a good looking guy nearby. He must have seen me glance in his direction, because he walked over to me.

"Hey, my name is Ben."

"Nice to meet you, Ben. I'm Angela."

"Nice to meet you, too. Are you staying near here?"

I pointed to our hotel and asked where he was staying. He went on to tell me that he was staying at the hotel next to ours. We kept on talking about anything and everything, including where we were from, our likes and dislikes, as well as some of our plans for the future. Conversation was so easy with Ben. When I saw Alice and Bella heading in our direction, I was actually filled with disappointment that I might not get to see Ben again.

Making a quick decision, I turned to Ben and asked, "Do you want to go to dinner with my friends and me?"

"Sure, I'd love to," he responded.

We turned and started walking to where Bella and Alice had stopped. "Hey guys, this is Ben. I thought we could all go out to eat together," I continued hesitantly looking at Bella and Alice. Bella and Alice both smirked. I knew I was going to be grilled about all of this later tonight when we got back to our rooms.

"Of course," Alice said. "Anybody have any suggestions on where we should go?"

"I know of this 50s style diner that has decent food," offered Ben.

"Let's go," spoke Bella.

We walked back to the hotel parking lot to get in our car and drive to the restaurant.

Once we arrived at the diner, we all walked in and managed to find one open booth near the back of the restaurant. Bella slid in next to Alice and Ben was next to me on the opposite side. Apparently this place gets a lot of business from tourists as well as locals based on the various stages of dress. Some were wearing your typical jeans and a t-shirt while others had on outrageous Hawaiian shirts. The various waiters and waitresses were scurrying between tables as fast as they could it seemed.

Our waiter came over to us within a few minutes and introduced himself, "I'm Mike and I'll be taking your order tonight. What can I get for you to drink?" he asked as his eyes definitely lingered on Bella.

Bella flushed as tried looking down at the table while ordering a coke to drink. The rest of ordered the same and Mike went off to grab our drinks.

"He was so checking you out, Bella," I said.

"Not interested," she replied.

"You better not be," Alice responded. "You can do so much better than that," she continued while waving her arm in the direction he went off to. I laughed quietly but froze in shock at her next outburst. "Look at Ben here. He's perfect for Angela!"

I quickly glanced over to Ben in my embarrassment, but he seemed happy with the vote of approval from Alice. I must admit that it is nice to have someone as confident as Alice give an approval to a guy I just met. It made me feel surer of the fact that we could be happy together.

I didn't doubt that Alice would find some guy around here to entertain her for our stay, but I wasn't sure about Bella. Even though I can be somewhat hesitant around guys, I believe Bella tends to be even more reclusive than I am. In the years that I've known her, she has hardly gone out with anyone. When she did go out, it was usually once and we would then have a girls' night to discuss all the reasons why she didn't like whoever it was. Mostly, I think she chose guys beneath her and then after going out with them realized that she would never be able to have a long term relationship with someone like that. Her main problem is that she can't see herself clearly. Bella just doesn't realize how cute she is even when she's told by me and Alice.

I was brought out of my current train of thought by Mike bringing our drinks out to us. "Have you guys decided on an appetizer or are you ready to order?" he asked.

"I think we're all ready to order," Alice spoke.

"What can I get you?" he asked with his eyes focused on Bella. There was clearly a double meaning behind his words that all of us caught on to.

Bella blushed again at his word choice as she managed to say, "I'll have the chicken salad."

"Excellent choice," replied Mike. He finally managed to take his eyes off her to take the rest of our orders before heading back to the kitchen.

"This Mike guy is sort of creepy," Bella finally said when the coast was clear.

"Well, I'm sure we won't run into him anymore after tonight," I responded.

Our food was brought out to us not too long after that and the conversation moved on to what we had planned for tomorrow. "I think we should hang out at the beach most of the day," Alice said. "Ben, you want to meet us over there?"

"Sure," he replied. "What time do you plan on getting down there?"

"How does 10:00 sound to everybody?" I asked.

Everyone agreed to the time and we picked the location for Ben to meet us at tomorrow morning. Mike brought out our check soon after that and bid us good night. Well, I suppose he only bid Bella good night since he didn't glance our way. Ben reached over to grab the check and burst out laughing.

"What is it?" I asked.

Still laughing, he showed me the check, "He left his phone number for Bella."

"What?!" Bella exclaimed.

Ben showed her the check where it said, 'Call me, Mike' with his phone number written below. Bella grimaced and we hurried to get out of there.

We drove back to our hotel because it was getting late and we were all tired from the long trip. I said a soft good night to Ben and he kissed my cheek before walking back to where he was staying. Then we girls walked to our hotel room for the night. After getting ready for bed, I just remember thinking about how Ben is before sleep took over.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N Still don't own Twilight, but I hope you're enjoying the story so far.

**Day 2**

**Edward POV**

I was happy to be back home in the house I had grown up in with my parents and older brother, Emmett. I haven't really spent much time here since I had been working nonstop in medical school trying to make high enough grades that I could get placed anywhere I would like for my residency.

I have known for a while that I wanted to be a doctor growing up. I think it was being able to watch my father as a young boy take care of numerous people in the hospital. I loved the idea of helping others and it grew on me over the years so that I decided I would go to medical school and become a doctor just like my father.

Medical school definitely was not a piece of cake and I relished the fact that all of those grueling hours I spent studying had helped me get this far. I have officially graduated and could probably do my residency anywhere I want. However, it would thrill me to no end to be able to work alongside my father.

Now, I'm back at home for a few weeks break before the sleepless nights begin again. Only, this time I'll be even closer to my family for their much needed support until I can get through the residency and open up my very own practice.

These thoughts of my dreams gave way to another image. One of a face with beautiful brown eyes. I couldn't help but to smile with my memory of bumping into her yesterday.

I was rushing through the airport trying to hurry up and get my baggage before Emmett gets too bored and does something embarrassing in the middle of the airport. Emmett wasn't the type to wait very long, particularly when he knew he could try to embarrass me in front of countless people. I knew he was waiting for me near the entrance of the airport, but I wouldn't put it past him to come past security to find me.

I wasn't paying as much attention to where I was walking because I was looking up at the signs above each baggage area for the one with the flight I was on in order to claim my bags. I felt something soft bump into me and looked down to find a girl sitting on the floor with the contents of her bag spilled all around her.

"I'm so very sorry," I told her, "I wasn't paying attention."

I noticed that she hadn't spoken yet and seemed to staring at me. I never really liked that kind of attention, but found that I didn't seem to mind it as much when it was her. Regardless, I was sure that both of us had places to be, so I tried speaking again to see if I could break her out of the spell she was in.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

I watched her nod her head slowly and that brought a smile to my face. I could tell from the look on her face that she was embarrassed. I watched a beautiful rosy blush tint her cheeks and it made me grin even bigger.

The more I saw her, the more beautiful I realized she was. She had long, brown hair that was down to the middle of her back with a gentle waviness to it. Her face was heart-shaped with skin that, although it was pale in color, looked absolutely flawless. Then there was her eyes. They were deep chocolate brown and I felt like I could lose myself in the depths of those eyes.

I offered her my hand to help her up. As much as I really probably needed to be on my way, I stayed because I didn't want to let this moment pass for some reason.

I haven't really been in any sort of relationship for a while. The most it might have been were a few dates here and there, but most of them ended up being with generic girls at school who were all the same. They didn't really care about learning about me. Instead, they were more interested in bank accounts.

Once she was back to standing, she spoke for the first time. "I'm so sorry for running into you. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going and..."

"It's no problem at all," I said cutting her off. I went out on a limb and decided to continue the conversation more than the situation probably warranted.

"I'm Edward Cullen and it's nice to meet you..."

"Bella... Bella Swan," she told me with a shyness in her voice.

Bella is this lovely girl's name. Bella means beautiful in Italian. My lovely Bella. Okay, I've really got to get a hold of myself, I thought. I can't turn all sappy right now when I probably won't even see this girl again.

I bent down to help her gather all of her belongings that had spilled out over the floor.

"Bella!" a voice called out.

I looked around and saw two girls heading our way. One was tall and slender while the other one was extremely short with small features and black spiky hair. She reminded me of a pixie.

"We've been looking all over for you," the tall one said when they reached us.

"Well, I guess I see why you never made it to the baggage claim," the pixie-like girl spoke looking me up and down.

Bella's face turned that beautiful shade of red again as she blushed. "Alice, Angela, this is Edward. Edward this is Alice and Angela," she introduced.

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," I said softly shaking each of their hands. "Well, I really should be off to find my brother. Maybe I'll see you again sometime," I continued looking in Bella's direction.

I heard three "bye's" as I walked away in search of the right baggage carousel to pick up my luggage.

I finally saw the sign for the one I needed to be at, when I heard my name called from behind me. I turned in the direction it was called to see the pixie-like girl, Alice I remembered, skipping up to me happily.

I wondered what she was coming up to me for, but before I could ask she spoke.

"I could tell that you're interested in Bella," Alice began. "We're going to be staying down here for a couple weeks, so if you wanted to drop by sometime, I think Bella might appreciate the company."

I think I just looked at her in disbelief. Alice gave me their hotel information and told me that they would be down at the beach tomorrow morning. I couldn't get words out the entire time, but it didn't seem to matter to her. Alice just smiled knowingly and skipped away again, but not before writing Bella's phone number on a piece of paper for me.

I grabbed my luggage in a daze and made my way to Emmett, who of course questioned the glazed over look in my eyes when he saw me.

I was brought back to the present by Emmett barging into my room.

"Bro, you need to get out of the house today," Emmett said.

"I just got back, you know," I reminded him sarcastically.

"Sure, but you were in a daze all day yesterday once you got here," he continued. "Mom and dad could barely get single word answers out of you all night at dinner."

I sighed, "Okay, so what do you want to do?"

"How about paintball?" Emmett asked.

"No."

"Arcade?"

"No."

"Amusement park?"

I was about to say no and hear the next suggestion when I had a brilliant idea. "Why don't we head to the beach for the day?"

"Girls in bikinis? Count me in!" Emmett boomed.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N This chapter is a bit longer than the rest because I had trouble finding a good spot to break it up at. Still don't own Twilight-I just play with the characters. Enjoy.

**Bella POV**

I woke up feeling myself shaking. I was still too sleepy to understand what was going on and vaguely wondered if I might be experiencing an earthquake. I gradually opened my eyes to see the pixie-like Alice shaking my bed trying to get me up. I looked over at the clock by the bed and groaned.

"Alice, it's only 7 in the morning. Go away."

"You've got to get up, Bella. We want to get to the beach early and need to grab something for breakfast."

"Ugh… okay whatever you say."

I dragged myself out of the bed with her watching because I knew she would just stay in my room until she saw me get up. I went to get a quick shower to hopefully help wake me up. When I returned I saw that Alice had already laid out my clothes for the beach on the bed. Luckily, today's selection wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. Alice actually chose a bikini that covered more than one small patch of me. I even had a cover-up to match the swimsuit.

Once dressed, I walked out into the main living room. Angela and Alice were already out there waiting for me. We decided to grab breakfast at one of the small cafes at the resort. We made our way over there and grabbed a light breakfast. Alice's plans consisted of finding a good spot on a lounge chair to sunbathe near a cute lifeguard. Angela was going to meet Ben, of course. I figured that I would stay by Alice in a lounge chair, but I wasn't really interested in looking for "eye candy" as she puts it.

After finishing breakfast, the three of us walked toward the beach. Once we met the beginning of the sand, we met up with Ben. Alice was scoping out the lifeguard stands and grabbed my arm heading toward a group of empty lounge chairs near one. Ben and Angela followed us there before heading off on their own in order to be able to find us a little more easily later on in the day. After putting my stuff down, I looked toward the lifeguard tower to see what Alice had seen.

The guy was certainly a sight to see. He was tall, very lean, and had very tanned skin. I couldn't be sure, but I thought he might be at least part American Indian based on his skin tone. His long black hair was pulled back in a rubber band. He was beautiful to look at. I probably could have looked at him longer, but I was afraid of him glancing my way and catching me staring. I turned my head in the other direction and gasped.

"What is it?" Alice asked.

I turned to her quickly and said, "Mike works here too. He's coming this way handing out beach towels to all the guests."

Before I could escape, he reached our chairs. "Hey Bella," he said.

"Hi Mike," I replied.

"Here's a towel for both of you," he said handing us each a towel. "Do you need me to help you put sunscreen on?"

"Umm… no I think I'll be fine for now… thanks," I answered not even able to imagine what he just said. It was too disgusting. Luckily, I kept the grimace off my face when I answered him.

"Okay, well I'll check back later after I get around to the other guests here," told Mike.

"See you later," I responded hoping I would never actually see him again.

After he left, I turned to find Alice laughing at me over what just happened. "It's not funny," I told her.

"The look on his face when he asked about putting sunscreen on was priceless," she said.

"Ugh… I don't want to think about Mike and sunscreen together in the same sentence again. It might make me sick."

I removed my cover-up and applied a generous portion of sunscreen on my skin because, let's face it, I don't tan. I might as well keep myself from burning to a crisp out here by keeping the sunscreen applied all day long. I pulled on my sunglasses and looked around the beach where Alice and I were lounging. There were a lot of people, old and young, that were having fun out here today.

To my left a beach volleyball match was taking place with only two guys involved. I couldn't clearly make out who the guy on the side closest to me was. All I could tell about him was that he was tall, thin but muscular, and had hair that was bronze in color. That color reminded me of something that I couldn't quite place. Instead of thinking that line of thought further, I looked toward the other guy that was playing. He was absolutely huge. Although a bit scary looking due to his size, he was very good looking with short, dark hair and what appeared to be a constant smile on his face.

The big guy seemed to be more interested in girls though, because he would smile and nod his head toward every decent looking one he saw. It caused him to miss quite a few points since he wasn't paying as much attention to the game.

I turned away from the scene to take out my book. I didn't want to pack too many items like books for my trip, so I settled on a Jane Austen book I owned, which contained multiple books within the book. I flipped through to find the beginning of _Pride and Prejudice_. It was one of my favorite love stories and I must say that I've always been in love with Mr. Darcy. Alice was already busy reading the latest fashion magazine and commenting periodically to herself about the styles that all the stars were currently wearing. I ignored it all and settled in with my book.

I had just reached one of my favorite scenes in the book when out of nowhere I get hit in the shoulder by a volleyball.

"Ow," I muttered rubbing the shoulder with my hand.

The volleyball had landed near my feet, so I reached down and picked it up looking towards the volleyball net. The two guys were jogging toward me, and my breath caught as I saw the second one fully. The bronze hair belonged to the very same guy I ran into at the airport. I quickly tried to take what little control of myself as I could because he was even more of a god without a shirt.

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the lifeguard had hopped down from his tower and was making his way over to us.

"I'm going to have to ask you guys to either stop your volleyball game or leave the beach so that you aren't bothering our guests," the lifeguard told them.

"Emmett just hit the ball a little too overzealously," the bronze-haired one spoke who I just recalled his name as being Edward. "We can still stop playing if that's what you want since I don't want to cause any trouble."

"I think I would prefer that," the lifeguard told him. "I like to keep beautiful women from being beaten up by stray volleyballs," he continued smiling at me.

"Uh… thanks," I told the lifeguard hesitantly.

"You can call me Jacob," he responded. "What might your name be?"

"Bella," I told him.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Bella. I hope to see you again soon."

I smiled and nodded watching him walk back to his tower. Edward and the other guy, who I heard was Emmett, were still standing by us. Emmett was sort of pouting, which I took to be because he couldn't play volleyball anymore. Edward, on the other hand, looked a little upset but I couldn't understand why. I decided to ignore it for the time being and maybe he would cheer up soon enough.

I looked toward Alice who had put her magazine away at some point during this business. She was looking between Jacob and Edward before giving me a knowing look.

"What?" I asked her watching Edward and Emmett sit down in the pearly white sand in front of our chairs.

"We'll have to discuss this later," Alice said and I groaned inwardly.

"So," Alice spoke up turning to the guys, "who wants to play a game?"

"What kind of game might that be?" Edward asked cautiously.

"Twenty questions," Alice answered pulling out her cell phone and typing something in.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"Sending a text to see if Angela and Ben want to join us," she answered. She finished her text and looked up again. "I'm Alice by the way," reaching out to vigorously shake Edward and Emmett's hands.

"Hey, nice to meet both of you," Emmett said grinning.

"Hi Alice, I believe we met at the airport," Edward spoke. "I'm Edward just in case you didn't remember and this is my older brother Emmett."

"Ohhh… I remember!" Alice squealed. "Bella! You remember Edward, don't you?"

I felt the blush creep up my face and said, "Yes, I remember."

Looking around, I saw that Angela and Ben were making their way back toward us. The more the merrier I thought hoping that this was going to be a more tame version of twenty questions. Knowing Alice, it might be even worse than I'm used to. I saw that Jacob was eying all of us.

Alice saw Angela and Ben come up and more introductions were made so everyone knew everyone's name at least. "So let's take this somewhere else," Alice said.

"Great," I muttered allowing everyone to get ahead of me since I was not the least bit interested in any game Alice came up with. It would just lead to more embarrassment on my behalf I'm sure.

Edward turned around a few steps in front of me and asked, "Bella, are you coming?"

"Bella!" I heard someone call behind me before I could respond to Edward. I turned around to see Jacob jogging up to me. "Are you guys leaving already?"

"Alice wants to play a game and decided we should go to a different location," I told him.

"Well, I hope you have fun," he said.

"Thanks," I told him and began turning back toward Edward who was still waiting for me with an expression I couldn't quite describe on his face. If I didn't know better, I would think he was jealous, but I knew that couldn't be it. I mean, let's face it, why would someone that looked like that be jealous of another guy talking to someone like me. Edward could have anyone he wanted with his looks. I'm just a plain Jane.

Jacob grabbed my arm gently before I could walk off. "Bella, would you like to go out sometime?" he asked.

I was surprised that he would ask me out. Jacob couldn't compare to the god-like qualities of Edward, but he was still very good looking and seemed nice enough. I didn't know anything about him, which made me a bit hesitant to say yes to his request. Jacob did seem to be at least more on my level as far as people I could date. I decided that even though I would like to give Jacob a shot and go out on a date with him, I couldn't do that in front of Edward. I knew Edward didn't like me in that way, but it still felt wrong to say yes to Jacob in front of him.

"Can I think about it?" I responded.

"Of course," Jake said while giving Edward a look that I didn't understand. "Let me know when you decide."

"See you later," I said watching him jog back to his tower. I turned and gave Edward a little smile, "Ready?" I asked.

Edward smiled and linked my arm through his as we made our way back in the direction everyone else had gone in. I wasn't sure where Alice was planning to play this game, but I didn't have long to wait in order to find out. As soon as we cleared the beach and some greenery within the interior of the resort, I saw all of them splashing around and laughing in one of the pools that contained a miniature waterfall.

"Bella! Edward! You finally made it," Alice shouted over to us right before Emmett dunked her under the water.

We laughed at her shocked expression when she came back above the surface. I hopped in the pool followed by Edward. The pool itself wasn't that deep. It was probably only six feet deep at the deepest part. I was glad I didn't have to worry too much about keeping myself above the water. We gathered together in an area that would allow all of us, including Alice, to touch the bottom.

"Okay, for those of you who either haven't played twenty questions before or just haven't played using my rules, I'm going to tell you how we're playing," Alice lectured. "Whoever's turn it is will ask a question that each of us will answer. The person asking the question doesn't have to answer it if they don't want to. This way we all get to learn little tidbits of information about one another and get better acquainted. Now who wants to go first?"

"Me, me, me," Emmett began.

"Okay, pick your question," Alice told him.

Emmett put his finger to his chin as if he was thinking really hard about a good question to ask all of us. He snapped his fingers quickly and said, "What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?"

To make things simpler, we decided to go around in a circle to answer the questions. Since Alice was standing next to Emmett, she answered first by saying, "I was once playing truth or dare and got dared to go skinny-dipping at La Push. It was all fine until Bella's dad, the chief of police, showed up and caught me. I ended up getting lectured not only by my parents that night, but also by Chief Swan."

"Whoa, your dad's the police chief where you're from?" Emmett asked amazed.

"Yes, he is," I answered.

"That's so cool," Emmett responded.

I was next to Alice so I quickly tried to come up with an embarrassing moment. It seems to be more difficult when you're armed with an arsenal of moments like that, but such is my life.

"Umm… well, Alice forced me into this beauty pageant one year in junior high. I was a nervous wreck to walk out on the stage in front of all of those people with the bright spotlights focused on me. I couldn't walk very well in high heels and the lights blinded me once I got on stage, so I ended up tripping and falling off the stage."

I blushed again as everyone laughed at my story. I turned to look at Edward who was standing in the water next to me. "I don't think I can top that," he began. He sat thoughtfully for a moment contemplating what he would offer I imagine. "Okay," he started, "there was this one time that I really like this girl. I was just about to tell her how much I liked her when she accepts an invitation to go out with another guy."

"Bro, that blows," Emmett exclaimed.

He couldn't possibly be talking about Jacob asking me out, could he? I mentally shook my head deciding that there was no way Edward could think of me in that way. We only just met yesterday and barely knew each other. No, he was definitely referring to some girl in his past. I can't believe any girl would turn this guy down though. I came out of my thoughts realizing that I had missed everything that Ben and Angela had said about their embarrassing moment.

"Okay the next question is…" Alice began, "are you a virgin?"

I couldn't help the groan that escaped after hearing the question. I of course had to answer the damn question so I quickly said, "Yes" to hopefully get it over with. Shockingly enough, I heard Edward respond with a "Yes" as well. That wasn't something I expected. I figured that someone who could have anybody would have some experience in that area, but found myself secretly pleased that he didn't. What in the world am I thinking? I came back to reality and heard the rest of the group respond with "No" one by one.

Okay, now it was my turn to ask the question. Even though I cared about what Emmett and Ben had to say, if I was honest with myself, I was more interested in finding out more about Edward. "What are you currently involved with as far as a job or college goes?" I asked. "Before anyone answers, I'll even volunteer to answer my own question. I've graduated from college with a degree in English Literature. I started writing a rough draft of a novel when I was in my last year in school, which has been picked up by a minor publishing company. Once I figure out how to make some corrections to the story, it should actually be published and available to the public."

"That's great, Bella," Edward said. "I recently finished up Medical school and even though I probably could have gone anywhere for my residency, I chose to come back home and start my residency here in the same hospital that my father works in."

All I could think about was the fact that he's a doctor on top of everything else. Edward is just… perfect. I don't know any other way to describe him.

Ben answered, "I finished up school with a degree in computer science. I've got a few job offers for people along the West coast, so we'll see what happens."

"I'm excited because I just got hired to work as an elementary school teacher in our hometown of Forks, Washington. It's a dream job for me and I can't wait to start it in a few weeks," Angela responded enthusiastically.

"Well, I've been out of school for a little while working as a personal trainer here in the panhandle of Florida," Emmett began, "but I really want to open up my own fitness center, so I'm currently working on raising money and scouting out possible locations."

"Yay, my turn!" Alice exclaimed. "I accepted this job working for an interior design company, but I haven't picked the location I want to work at yet. That's part of the reason why our vacation destination is here. I was hoping to get a chance at some point while we're down here to run to the company's location in Destin and check it out firsthand."

Edward and Emmett both looked at her for a moment before Edward spoke up, "Who owns this design company that you're going to be working for?"

"I haven't met her in person, but her name is Esme Cullen," replied Alice.

"Since you're from around here," I began, "have you heard of Esme Cullen or at least know where the company is located?"

Edward smirked and said, "I think we might be able to help you with both of those. We happen to know where the company is located and also know Esme Cullen, too."

"That's great!" I told him looking over at a smiling Alice. "Do you think Alice can meet her sometime soon?"

"I think both of you can meet her," Edward responded his eyes twinkling. "Just let me get the time figured out and I'll let you know."

"Okay, what I want to know for my question is…" Edward began, "what are your favorite hobbies? I'll go ahead and say that I like to listen and play music in my spare time."

"I like to play chess," Ben said. "It's stupid, I know, but I really like the logic of the game and trying to out think your opponent."

"It's not stupid at all," Angela said giving Ben's shoulder a squeeze.

I was happy for her. They seemed to make a cute couple. I'm not sure how everything will be able to work out for them after this vacation is over, but I hope it can. She's definitely found a nice guy that's worthy of her.

Angela spoke up next, "I like to go around to various places taking pictures. I've always love photography and particularly like going to parks to take candid shots of people."

"I like video games, sports, and women," Emmett said.

I haven't known Emmett very long, but that answer doesn't surprise me a bit. I wonder what he would be like when he finally finds the woman of his dreams. I hope I'm there to see that, although unless it happens in the next week or so, I doubt that will be the case.

It was now Alice's turn and I knew exactly what she was going to say her hobby was. She didn't disappoint me when she excitedly said, "My hobby is shopping!" All of us laughed at her exuberance.

The group looked to me waiting for my response. Of course, Alice and Angela knew me well enough to know that my hobbies consist of reading and writing. "Well, my occupation and hobby kind of goes hand in hand. I love to write, but I'm also a big reader. I read a little bit of everything, but my favorites are still the classics like Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte."

"What's one thing you want to experience while in Florida?" Ben asked us. "I know that I for one want to experience some really good seafood."

Angela looked thoughtful before replying, "I think I want to see a really nice sunset." She lightly laughed and continued, "I must sound like a hopeless romantic with that."

"Hey, we can always try to catch the sunset tonight," Ben told her, "then we can go out to dinner at a seafood restaurant."

Alice and I smiled at how Ben managed to create a perfect opportunity to take care of both of their wishes while spending more time together with each other.

Emmett looked confused for a moment. He finally said, "Well, I'm from around here so I'm not sure what I really want to experience that I haven't already… Oh I know, there's an amusement park near here that we could all go to one day," he said excitedly splashing around in the water like a little kid.

"An amusement park, seriously?" Edward questioned.

"Yeah, it'd be fun, Eddie," Emmett replied.

"Don't call me Eddie," Edward said grumpily. "Okay, maybe we'll try to go there one day."

"I have to go to Seaside," Alice said excitedly. "There's supposed to be all these great shops there. I think I'll take Bella there with me tomorrow."

"Wait, what?" I sputtered hearing my name. "Alice," I whined, "I never agreed to go shopping with you. Why can't Angela go with you instead?"

"Angela is busy," Angela spoke up laughing.

"Come on," I continued in my whiny voice. I looked around the rest of the group with pleading eyes, but to no avail. Everyone was either looking amused or outright laughing at my predicament. No volunteers for help on my behalf.

"Don't worry, Bella," Alice said, "I won't make you shop all day. I figure that you'll have plans for the evening," she continued with a knowing look.

"Fine," I relented throwing my hands up and inadvertently splashing everyone around me.

Edward smirked at my little tantrum and I splashed him in the face with water. His retaliated by dunking me underwater. I almost stomped my foot, but decided to at least try to act my age once again.

"Bella, tell us what you want to experience while you're here," Ben said bringing me back to our game.

I thought about this for a moment. I really wasn't sure what I might want to see or do here. "I'm not sure," I finally answered honestly. "Maybe you guys should just surprise me with stuff to see and do here, other than shopping," I clarified after taking a look at Alice's expression.

Edward finally got his chance to answer. He said, "I've spent most of my life here, but there's a small beach near here that I would love to take the love of my life to. That is, I would love to take her there once I find her," he continued.

That sounded like such a nice and romantic thing from where I was sitting. What I would give to be that girl some day.

We continued on with our questions for another hour or so. I managed to learn a lot about Emmett, Edward, Ben, and sometimes even surprising things that I didn't know about Alice or Angela.

Finally, Edward spoke up, "Before it gets too late in the day, Emmett and I should head back home. Would you guys care to meet back up for dinner somewhere?"

I looked to Alice and she told them, "Sure, how about we have dinner around seven. You can either come back here to meet us or we can meet you at a restaurant, your choice."

"We'll come back here," Edward told her flashing a crooked smile my way.

"Just come on up to the room," I told them. "We're in 314."

"See you in a few hours," he said before we all got out, toweled off, and they departed.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Once again, SM owns.

**Bella POV**

I followed Alice and Angela back up to our room. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was only four o'clock, so we had three hours before we needed to be ready for dinner with the guys. Alice, on the other hand, didn't think that three hours could be spent leisurely. She ushered us into the shower one by one until everyone had washed the sand and chlorine off our bodies.

By the time I was out of the shower, Alice had already laid out clothes for me to wear tonight. The sundress wasn't as casual as I would like, but at least it didn't involve high heels. After dressing and having a mini-makeover from Alice in record time, I was ready to go. It wasn't even six yet. I grimaced at having to sit around for more than an hour. I hated having too much time to kill, but that's when Alice came over with a solution to the problem, which probably was worse that excessive time.

"It's time for girl-talk," Alice told me while hauling Angela over by the arm.

"Do we really have to do this now?" I asked knowing the answer already.

"Yes, we have lots to dish, so why don't we go out to the balcony so we can at least have a nice view while we hash out everything that's happened in the past couple of days," Alice spoke.

We all went out onto the balcony and sat down in the chairs provided. It was a beautiful view of the interior of the resort. I could see the pool with the mini waterfall that we had been in earlier as well as another pool a little further off. All of the greenery made the view appear like a miniature paradise. I sighed in content. This was certainly the life.

"Tell us about Ben," Alice asked Angela.

Angela smiled before beginning with, "He's just so wonderful. We like the same things, he's thoughtful, intelligent, kind… I just can't imagine anyone better," she finished smiling broadly.

"I'm really happy for you Ange," I told her.

"Have you guys talked about what you're planning on doing after we go back home?" Alice asked.

I had wondered the same thing and looked toward Angela to see what she would say. She replied, "Ben mentioned those job offers that he had along the West coast during our game."

We nodded showing that we both remembered what he said. Angela continued, "He told me that one of them was in Seattle. He said that it was a really good offer that he had been seriously considering taking before we met. Now he thinks that he should definitely take the offer. We'll still be living in different towns, but the distance shouldn't be too bad. I think we could manage it at first anyway, until we get to know each other even better."

"That sounds good Angela," I offered in support.

Alice voiced equal encouragement as well as we finished talking a bit more about Angela and Ben.

I tried to prolong to inevitable by asking Alice about Emmett. They did seem to enjoy each other's company a lot so I wondered if there might be something there.

"So Alice, tell us about Emmett," I said.

She gave me a quizzical look. "You don't think there's anything between me and Emmett, do you?" she asked laughing.

Now it was my turn to look confused.

"Bella, Emmett and I are just good friends," Alice responded. "He just isn't my type. Although," she continued looking down below, "I think I might have just found my dream man."

"What?" I asked while Angela simultaneously asked, "Who?"

All three of us were looking below now. I saw a tall, lean guy with blonde hair walking below us and I could tell that's who caught Alice's eye.

"Hey!" Alice called.

For a second I couldn't believe Alice had just yelled down three stories below to some random guy that she doesn't even know. Then I remembered that this was Alice. She'll do anything that seems crazy to me without batting an eye.

He didn't seem to realize that he was being called and kept on walking. "Hey sexy!" Alice yelled out again. Even though she wasn't talking to me, I could still feel the blush creep up just from hearing this.

Angela laughed because upon hearing the latest call from Alice, the blonde stranger turned his head to look up. He finally saw where we were, probably due to Alice waving her arms in air madly.

"Hey" he called up to us.

"What's your name, stranger?" Alice asked.

"Jasper," he replied. "What's yours?"

"I'm Alice and these are my friends, Bella and Angela," she answered gesturing to each of us as she spoke our name. "What are you doing tonight?"

"I'm not sure," he answered.

"Wait a minute while I come down," Alice told him. She turned to us, "Hey, I'm going to go invite him to dinner with us. Meet you back up here in a bit."

"Sure, have fun," Angela said.

"Good luck," I told her.

"Thanks," Alice replied hurrying out of the room.

I looked below as Jasper lost interest in us since Alice was no longer up here. He wondered a bit before I barely heard a female call his name. It surprised me that Alice had made it down there so fast. I decided to continue to watch their exchange. However, it wasn't Alice that I saw. Instead, there was a tall, shapely blonde that came over to Jasper. They had a quick conversation, which for obvious reasons, I couldn't hear from three stories up, and quickly left.

Shortly after I watched them disappear, Alice was down there looking around for Jasper. I felt for her because I knew she was excited to see him up close and probably find out more about him without having to yell to him. She looked around for a minute before looking up toward our balcony.

"Did you see where he went?" Alice called up to me.

"Yes, but come back up and I'll fill you in," I told her. I didn't really want to tell her about another woman by yelling it down there to her.

I looked over to Angela, "She's going to be upset," I said to her.

Angela nodded. "Maybe," she replied, "but we might as well let her know now before she gets her hopes up further."

"True."

Alice appeared back in our room a few minutes later looking somewhat dejected.

"So did you see where he went?" Alice asked.

"I didn't see where he went exactly," I told her, "but there was a blonde girl who called his name. She came over to him and they talked for a minute before walking off together."

"Why are all the good ones taken?" Alice asked rhetorically.

"Hey we still have plenty of time left here to find someone," I told her trying to cheer her up.

"Speaking of which," Alice spoke, "I want to know if a certain someone asked you out on a date today."

Great, I thought, I try to cheer Alice up and it backfires on me.

"Yes, if you must know, he did ask me out, but I told him I would think about it," I told her and Angela whose head shot up at the question.

"Wait, you told him you would think about it?" Alice asked. "What's there to think about? He's gorgeous and totally into you. I mean ever since I saw the two of you at the airport…"

"Wait," I interrupted holding my hand up. "Who, exactly, are you talking about Alice?"

"Edward asked you out, didn't he?" Alice asked looking confused.

"No," I answered. "Jacob asked me out."

"Jacob?" Alice asked.

"Isn't that the lifeguard that we've been sitting by lately?" Angela asked me.

"One and the same," I answered. "He asked me out today when Edward and I were on our way over to the pool."

Alice looked shocked. "So, let me get this straight. Edward didn't ask you out, but Jacob did. Not only that, but Jacob asked you while Edward was standing right there with you?"

I nodded my head. "That's one of the reasons why I told him I would think about it," I responded. "It just didn't seem right to make a date right in front of another guy that I barely know."

"Well, I agree with that," Angela said. "So are you planning on going out with him?"

"Of course she is," Alice piped up.

"Don't I get to make the decision of who I'm going to date?" I asked her in disbelief.

"I might let you do that if you wouldn't always high-tail it out of the situation by avoiding it completely," Alice told me. "Anyways, tomorrow morning you're going to go down to the beach and tell him that you'll go out with him. Then we'll go shopping and make sure to find something nice for you to wear on your date."

"Glad I could plan this all out for myself," I said sarcastically.

I was saved from hearing Alice's response by a knock on the door. I stood up to answer the door. Edward, Ben, and Emmett were on the other side waiting as the door opened. I watched as Edward's eyes quickly looked me up and down. I think that kind of appraisal might have made me feel weird if it were someone else doing it. I didn't mind it when it was Edward though.

"Bella, you look beautiful," Edward told me giving me a kiss on the cheek, which immediately caused me to blush.

"Thank you," I replied allowing them to enter our room.

"So, where are you handsome men planning on taking us?" Alice asked smiling.

"You will be dining at Emmett's favorite restaurant here," Edward replied.

"And what might that be?" I asked arching an eyebrow.

Edward and Emmett laughed in response. "You'll see in due time," Edward replied.

"Ladies, are we ready?" Ben asked offering his arm for Angela.

Emmett and Alice walked out of the room first followed by Ben and Angela. I smiled at how sweet those two look together.

"What are you thinking?" Edward softly asked me.

I hadn't even realized that he was standing next to me with my thoughts on Ben and Angela.

"I was thinking about how great a couple Ben and Angela make," I told him honestly.

He smiled and offered his arm to me, which I gladly took, and we made our way out of the door following behind the others in the group.

I didn't want to admit to myself or anybody else for that matter how much I was starting to like Edward. He just seemed so perfect. Everything from the manners to his handsome features made him seem like the perfect man. He was too good to be true I reminded myself.

We reached Emmett's jeep and piled in. Alice sat up front beside Emmett, while the rest of us were in the back seat. Due to a lack of seating, Angela was actually sitting on Ben's lap next to me with Edward on my other side.

"So, Emmett, where are we going?" I asked.

"I'm taking you guys out to my favorite place to eat," Emmett responded with a big grin on his face. "I promise that you'll love it, and it does fit in with the good seafood that Ben mentioned he wanted to eat."

Approximately ten minutes later we pulled up to a restaurant that resembled a cross between a pirate ship and an old shack. It was called The Pirate's Bounty, and I was a bit wary to walk in there.

"This is the restaurant?" Alice asked in disbelief.

Emmett turned so he could face us and said, "Trust me, it doesn't look like much on the outside, but it has some great food."

"Okay," Alice said resigned.

Edward offered his hand to help me get out, for which I accepted with a smile. We all started walking toward the front door. Once inside, Edward gave his name to the hostess, who definitely eyed him, before she turned with a bunch of menus and led the way to our table.

She led us to a very large semi-circular booth that was somewhat secluded from the rest of the people in the restaurant. We all slid in and I once again ended up sitting next to Edward. I took a moment to take in the decorations in the restaurant.

Along the walls were mounted fish of every size imaginable along with other fishing gear such as ropes, nets, and various shaped hooks. They also had large paintings of boats in rough seas with the waves appearing to smash them into toothpicks. It did look a lot nicer on the inside than the outside, so maybe Emmett was also right about the food.

A waitress came over to take our drinks orders. I watched as the waitress not only took our drink order, but also eyed the boys with glaring obviousness. After she left to place the order, I turned to Edward and asked, "Doesn't that bother you at all?"

"Doesn't what bother me?" he asked in return.

"First the hostess was appraising you and then our waitress did the same thing. Doesn't that make you feel like a walking piece of meat?"

Edward laughed softly before replying, "I suppose it does bother me, but it's happened for so long that I usually ignore it and don't pay much attention to them. That doesn't sound arrogant does it?" he asked worriedly.

"No, no," I quickly replied, "but how would you know if a girl was after you for you or just after the body?"

"Trust me, I can tell," he answered softly with a smile. "Does it bother you?"

"Does what bother me?" I asked him not sure what he was talking about now.

"Does it bother you that other women are eying me?" he asked with a smirk.

I should have kept my mouth shut, I thought. "No, not at all," I answered quickly, but I'm pretty sure he knew I was lying based on the grin he had on his face.

The waitress saved me from digging myself further into a hole when she arrived with our drink orders. She stood there and also took the order for our food. I hadn't even glanced at the menu, so I quickly looked through it before she got to me. I ended up ordering some shrimp scampi since it was the first thing I saw.

After our food arrived at the table, all of us dug in quickly. I looked up at one point to see everyone immersed in conversation except for me and Edward. Edward looked over at me and said, "So tell me more about yourself."

"What would you like to know?" I asked him.

"Anything you want to share," he responded, "You know, work, love life, etc."

"Well, I told everyone about how I was working on writing a book," I began. "My current problem is that the editor feels I should have more romance in it."

"Why is that a problem?" Edward asked with interest.

"You know how they say, that you should write what you know?" I responded and watched as Edward nodded his head to continue. "I've never had much of a love life, and I certainly haven't been in love with anyone before, so it's making it incredibly difficult to write something that I haven't experienced before."

"You haven't dated many people?" Edward asked.

"Alice would be happy to tell you all about my sad love like, not that you should ask," I quickly corrected myself. "I've been on dates with people, but the first date was usually the last one. Alice and Angela think I'm too picky, but I guess I just haven't found someone that I want."

"I wouldn't call that picky," Edward replied. "I would say that you have high standards."

"I wish you could tell Alice that," I responded with a grimace, "maybe it would get me out of going on a date with Jacob…" I trailed off as I saw the dark expression on his face. I knew I said way too much, but couldn't seem to help it around him.

"Alice," Edward called out.

I watched as her head turned his way breaking out of the discussion she was having with Emmett. "Yes?" she asked with hesitation, probably due to the look on Edward's face.

"Are you making Bella go out on a date with Jacob?" he asked furiously.

"Yes," she replied with defiance. "It's part of our plan to find someone we love while we're down here."

I can't believe she just said that. It makes all of us sound like we're desperate.

"Bella, is this true?" Edward asked angrily.

All I could do was nod my head at him.

"I can't believe you of all people would try to pimp yourself off on guys," Edward responded.

"Excuse me," I said as I slipped out of booth trying to get as far away from the table as possible before the tears came. I can't believe he would say something so hurtful. Surely, he would know that I'm not the type to do that. Then again, I reminded myself, we've only know each other for a few hours.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N A bit short than the rest, but I promise another chapter soon. Still don't own Twilight.

**Edward's POV**

I was completely incensed after Bella told me how she was being forced to go out on a date with Jacob just because he asked her out. I watched as Bella excused herself from the table and went off in the direction of the restroom. I hated the fact that she was probably crying in the bathroom because of something I said. The evening had been going so well up until a short time ago.

"What the hell, bro!" Emmett exclaimed looking across the table at me.

I shrugged and said, "What?"

"Edward, I can't believe you are such a jerk," Alice told me, "and to think you were the reason I had to coerce her into going out with Jacob."

That caught my attention. "Bella wants to date me?" I asked quietly.

"Well, I doubt she does now," Emmett responded. "What you said was totally harsh."

I cringed as I remembered practically calling her a slut.

Angela seemed to since how remorseful I was feeling when she spoke quietly, "You can always try to do something nice to make up for it. I'm sure it won't hurt."

"As much as some of us might think you're a dick for what you did, I can promise that we won't try to convince Bella in any way to not take you back," Alice stated.

"Thanks," I told them softly.

I knew that now I had to plan a way to apologize. Hopefully, I can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, and not only be forgiven, but also finally ask her out on a date.

**Bella's POV**

I didn't know how long I had been in the bathroom crying. I was just about to wash my face and head back out to the table when Alice and Angela stepped in to check on me.

"Oh honey," Angela said giving me a hug, "we're sorry Edward's an idiot."

"Now let's get you cleaned up and we can head home," Alice spoke.

I nodded and then washed my face with some water. Luckily, the little makeup I had on was waterproof. Something that Alice had insisted I wear for ages. After managing to make myself look presentable again, we walked out of the restroom.

I was about to head for the table, but they grabbed my arm and we headed for the door.

"We left the boys with the check," Alice said by way of explanation.

Once we got to the jeep, we just stood around waiting on the rest of them to show up.

"Did I miss anything after I left?" I asked.

"Nothing really," Alice responded. "We gave him a big talking to and told him not to ever pull that crap again."

"Oh, I wish you wouldn't have said anything," I told her.

"Bella, someone had to stick up for you," Angela said. "You can't let people just say anything they want to you and accept it with no questions asked."

I nodded my head as I noticed that the guys were coming out of the restaurant toward the jeep. Emmett and Ben were walking together while Edward hung back. I was glad that the drive back was short because I didn't know how well I would be able to face Edward.

I ended up sitting in the front passenger seat next to Emmett on the way home. The ten minute drive was just as quiet as I had expected. Once we got to the hotel, we all got out of the jeep.

Emmett pulled me into a big bear hug and whispered into my ear, "Don't worry about that piece of shit brother of mine. He'll come around."

"Thanks, Emmett," I told him.

I turned to walk toward the bank of elevators, when I heard him call my name softly.

"Bella," Edward began, "I'm truly sorry for what I said tonight at the restaurant. Please forgive me for it."

"I'll think about it," I told him, although I had already forgiven him the moment he apologized.

"Goodnight," Edward said softly before getting back into the jeep with Emmett.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N Thank you to those who have reviewed. I love the input.

**Day 3**

**Bella POV  
**

I woke up to my bed vibrating underneath me. I knew without even opening my eyes that it had to be Alice. No one has as much energy as she does, especially in the morning. I groaned and threw my pillow over my head.

"Bella, it's time to get up," Alice said snatching the pillow off my head.

"What time is it anyway?" I asked her groggily.

"It's seven o'clock," Alice replied cheerfully.

"Alice," I whined, "nobody wakes up at seven when they're on vacation. Let me go back to sleep and I'll get up at a more reasonable hour like ten or so."

"Don't make me pour water all over you," Alice warned in a serious tone.

I gradually opened my eyes to find her hovering over me. Sure enough, she had found a pitcher full of water somewhere around here. "I'm up, I'm up," I told her quickly, since I didn't want to get watered down this early in the morning.

"Okay, go hop in the shower, and then get dressed for our shopping trip," Alice told me.

I nodded and got up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. I tried to be quick, but I enjoyed letting the warm water wash over and relax me. After toweling off, I put on a t-shirt and shorts. I would rather be as comfortable as possible if I have to endure the torture of shopping with Alice all day.

Angela was the lucky one today. She was spending her day with Ben. I think she mentioned that he was planning to take her to an aquarium somewhere around here that was supposed to allow people to not only see the usual fish in tanks, but allowed people for an extra charge to actually feed the dolphins and touch baby sharks and manta rays.

Once I was presentable, I stepped out of the bathroom. Alice was holding a huge bouquet of flowers. It looked like a mixture of freesia, daisies, and a few roses interspersed. I didn't think that Alice and Emmett were more than friends, but obviously she had caught somebody's eye.

"Who sent you the flowers, Alice?" I asked.

She shook her head saying, "They're not for me. The flowers are actually for you."

"For me?" I asked as she handed them over to me "Who would give me flowers?"

"Why don't you look to see what's written on the card," Alice responded with a big smile on her face.

"You've already looked, haven't you?" I asked guessing what that expression meant.

"Maybe," she said.

I set the flowers down on the coffee table and pulled the card off. I opened the card hesitantly and looked at what the contents had written on it. "I'm sorry for behaving so rudely last night. I hope you will forgive me and perhaps give me a second chance by going out on a date with me. This time only because you want to and not because anyone told you to. Edward," I read aloud.

After he apologized last night at the end of dinner, I had more or less forgiven him for his rude behavior. I decided that he might have been jealous and that led to what he said. Although, I still couldn't fathom him being jealous over me going out with another guy. I knew that I definitely had some feelings developing for him, but it still shocked me that he might be feeling the same way, too. Maybe if this thing with Jacob doesn't pan out, I can give Edward the chance that I so desperately wanted to give him.

"So, are you going to go out with him?" Alice asked eagerly.

"I can't because you told me to date Jacob," I replied.

"Silly Bella," Alice said, "you're going out with Jacob tonight, but you can still see Edward another night."

"I don't know, Alice," I told her.

"Think about it and decide later then," Alice responded. "It's time for you to find Jacob anyway."

"Fine," I huffed.

"Meet you by the car in ten minutes," Alice shouted as I walked out the door.

I headed down to the beach, since that was the only place I knew of to find Jacob in the first place. After walking the short way down to the sand, I looked toward the lifeguard tower that was becoming increasingly familiar over time. Today must be my lucky day, I thought, as I saw Jacob sitting in the tower.

"Hey Jake," I called when I reached the side of his lifeguard stand.

His head looked around and he broke out in a huge grin when he recognized me. "So, what brings you down here today?" he asked as he jumped from the tower to stand in front of me.

Better to get this over with quickly, I thought. "Well, I decided to take you up on your offer of going out on a date," I told him.

"Really?" he questioned. "You'll go out with me?"

"Do you want to go somewhere tonight?" I asked tentatively.

"That sounds great, Bella," Jake replied. "I'll pick you up tonight around seven by the pool."

"Okay, see you at seven," I told him. "I probably won't be down here today because Alice wants to go shopping," I continued making a face at the end.

"See you tonight, Bella," Jake responded.

I walked back toward the resort to meet Alice by the car. She was waiting by the car talking animatedly on her cell phone to somebody. When she saw me coming over, she said, "Thanks, I'll see you later tonight." With that she closed her phone and looked over at me.

"Are you and Jake having your date tonight?" she asked.

"He's picking me up at seven," I told her.

"Great," she said happily, "Angela and Ben are going out tonight as well. Instead of staying here alone, I was talking to Emmett and he gave me directions to their house. I'm planning on heading over there to hang out with them tonight."

"That doesn't sound too bad to me either," I told her.

"Silly Bella," Alice chided, "you don't want to hang out with us when you can be out with Jacob."

"Edward might be there," I mumbled quietly hoping it was too soft for Alice to hear me.

Of course, Alice heard what I said.

"Edward likes you, you know," she told me.

"Let's go shopping," I grumbled trying to avoid any further discussion of Edward.

We got in the car with Alice in the driver's seat. Alice apparently had already looked up where all the shopping places were around here because she seemed to know exactly where she was going. I just settled back in my seat and enjoyed the ride.

We arrived shortly at what appeared to be an outlet mall. I have never in my life seen or heard of Alice going to an outlet. Alice is all about designer clothes after all.

"An outlet?" I questioned in disbelief.

"I figured we could try it out since they at least have some designer brands," she replied shrugging. "If I can't find anything good, then I also know where some other places are that we can try."

"You know I don't care where my clothes come from," I told her.

"That's why I have to dress you properly," Alice said.

When it comes to shopping with Alice, I just follow her around and when she throws clothes at me, I try them on. We went inside some sort of designer store where Alice began searching through all the racks of clothes.

Watching Alice shop was something to behold. She could be lightning fast through a store. It was also funny at times because she would be looking at an article of clothing and start mumbling something to herself about it. I'm not sure what she mumbling was about. Possibly what accessories would look good with it or which shoes would be best.

Alice looked up and saw me standing there. "Bella, grab a dressing room and I'll hand you the stuff that you need to try on."

"Okay," I told her walking over to an available dressing room.

I might have been standing there for two minutes before Alice shoved a handful of clothes inside for me to try on. I tried on the first dress, which was a short black number that I wasn't crazy about. I came out of the dressing room to show Alice.

"Next," Alice called.

The next dress I tried on was one I really liked. It was crimson red color that fell to just below the knee. The sleeveless number was well fitted until it reached my waist and hips where it flared out.

"This is the dress," I told Alice as I came out of the dressing room to model it.

"Perfect," Alice said clapping her hands. "Okay, let's get that dress and then we'll head over to this other store that specializes in shoes since you just _have_ to get some matching shoes."

After making my purchase, I followed Alice to some sort of designer shoe store that she was excited about going to under the pretense of finding a pair of matching shoes for my new dress. I, on the other hand, knew that it would be practically impossible for Alice to leave that store without buying several pairs of shoes for herself.

I followed as she looked around the selection of shoes that were available. There was a beautiful blonde that was eying some cute peep toe shoes that Alice was also looking at. The blonde girl was tall and looked like she could be a model with her height and tone body.

Looking around the store, I felt my mouth drop open as I recognized a blonde male coming over toward Alice and the blonde girl. With a shock I was about to reach over to tell Alice that the guy she was talking to from the balcony last night was here when all hell broke out.

Alice lunged for a shoe box at the same time as the blonde. They both ended up coming up with a crushed shoe box and one shoe a piece.

"Give me the shoe!" Alice shouted at the blonde.

"_You_ give me _my_ shoe!" the blonde screamed back.

I watched as the male, I think his name is Jasper, started making his way over to us more quickly now that he saw the fight going on. It made me want to get my phone out to tape it, but I didn't since I was a little worried that I might have to jump in the middle of this to break them up. Jasper turned so he could stand by me.

"Hey," Jasper spoke, "did my sister start all this?"

"She's you sister?" I asked. That would make Alice feel better, I thought. "Actually, I think both Alice and our sister started it by going for the same pair of shoes at the same time."

"Sounds like my sister," Jasper said. "I remember Alice from last night," he continued with a little smile on his face.

I could tell by his expression that he liked her from the short conversation they had last night. "You know, she likes you, too," I told him.

"She does?" Jasper asked smiling.

"Maybe you two should get together some time," I told him. I was about to say something else when I saw that Alice and Jasper's sister were now beating each other with the shoes that had.

"Oh know, I think we better break them up," Jasper said worriedly.

"Just a heads up, Alice is stronger than she looks," I warned him.

Jasper just nodded his head and walked around me to restrain Alice and pull her away from his sister.

"Hey, let me go!" Alice yelled struggling against his hold on her.

"Calm down," Jasper said into her ear.

It was amazing to watch the whole thing. As soon as Jasper spoke, Alice turned her head enough to see Jasper and immediately got calm.

"Rose, give Alice the shoe," Jasper told his sister.

"Why should I?" Rose asked him.

"Look, stop acting like a brat and give her the shoe," Jasper said sternly.

She looked furious, but gave the shoe over to Alice.

"At least you have good taste," Rose told Alice angrily.

"Look, you can have the shoes if you want," Alice began, "I was only grabbing them to match a dress Bella just purchase. We can always search for a different pair for Bella."

I overheard heard and glanced at the shoes. They were stilettos for goodness sake.

"Alice, what in the world are you thinking?" I exclaimed. "I would kill myself in those kind of shoes. I thought they were for you."

Rose was looking back and forth between us and a smile was starting on her face. "Hmm... I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship," she quoted to Alice. "My name is Rosalie, but you can call me Rose," she introduced. "That's my brother Jasper who has been talking about you nonstop since last night."

Alice looked positively gleeful at that revelation, while Jasper looked slightly embarrassed.

"I'm Alice and this is my friend, Bella," Alice introduced. "Bella has a hot date with a lifeguard tonight and we need shoes to match her dress."

"Come on let's find her some," Rose told her. "Bella, you can just hang out with Jasper if you want while we shop."

I nodded my acknowledgement to them and looked over to Jasper. "Want to grab a smoothie?" I asked.

"Sure," Jasper replied smoothly. "Lead the way."

We left Alice and Rosalie in the shoe store to pick out some shoes for me that I'm hoping I would actually be able to walk in. I had seen a smoothie shop nearby and led the way over to it.

After grabbing our drinks, we found a table to sit down at. "So are you two vacationing here?" I asked.

"Yes, we're here from Texas," Jasper said. "Although, to be honest, we may end up staying here permanently. I was offered a job as a history professor at a university near here. Rose has been interested in working as a design engineer in the auto industry. She absolutely loves cars and one day wants to own her own auto company. For now she's found a few opportunities available in this area where she could work as a design engineer."

"Wow, I would never have pegged Rose as a woman who worked on cars," I responded.

"Most people don't," Jasper replied shrugging his shoulders. "I gather you and Alice are here on vacation?"

"Yes, we arrived a few days ago and plan to stay for two weeks," I told him. "We came here from Washington state, so it's been quite the change of scenery and we've been loving it so far."

"Alice does have a job offer for a company down here though," I continued.

"Who with?" Jasper asked with interest.

"Some interior designer named Esme Cullen," I answered. "The company is actually in several different locations, but I know for a fact that Alice chose us to vacation here because she was most interested in working in this location."

"So do you think Alice is doing anything tonight?" Jasper asked.

"She's actually supposed to be going over to the house of some friends of ours that we met a couple of days ago tonight," I told him. "I think you and Rose should go over there, too."

"We wouldn't want to intrude," Jasper responded shaking his head.

"You wouldn't be intruding," I said. "Emmett is definitely a 'the more the merrier' kind of guy."

"If you say so," Jasper said.

At that moment his cell phone vibrated. Jasper picked it up and looked at it for a moment before putting it away. He looked up at me then and spoke, "The girls finished their shopping and are waiting for us outside some sort of china place."

"I know where that is, but I'm hoping Alice didn't decide to buy a bunch of stuff from that store," I responded. "There's no way we would be able to get that on a plane in one piece."

"Lead the way," Jasper said.

I led Jasper back to where I remembered the china store being. Alice and Rose were standing in front of the place with a ton of bags in their hands.

"What in the world did you buy?" I asked Alice in disbelief.

"Stop worrying Bella," Alice chided, "most of this we picked out for you anyway."

"Please tell me you're joking," I pleaded.

"Not at all," Rose replied. "Now, let's get back to the resort so we can start playing Bella Barbie."

I looked at Alice in astonishment. "You told her about Bella Barbie?"

Alice had the good sense to at least look slightly embarrassed about telling Rose even though we all know she could care less. I always hated her playing dress up with me like I was her own personal Barbie doll.

"Help carry the bags, Jasper," Rose told her brother who held out his hands to grab what he could from both her and Alice.

We piled into our cars and drove back to the resort. It only seemed to take a few minutes to get back there. After unloading the vehicles, the four of us made our way up to our room to unload everything. I had mentioned to Alice on our way over about inviting Jasper and Rose to come along with her tonight to Emmett and Edward's house. She readily agreed that it was a fantastic idea, and was talking to Rose about what time they might want to leave to go over there tonight.

I knew that Alice liked Jasper and couldn't wait to be able to find our more about him and just spend some quality time together in general. I also had a sneaking suspicion that once Emmett saw Rosalie it would be game over for him. I think she would be just the bombshell that he's looking for and would cause him to pay enormous amounts of attention on her. Heck, Rose might be the only one that would be able to keep Emmett in line. I was looking forward to seeing how that played itself out.

Once in the hotel room, Jasper settled himself on one of the sofas and turned on the television to watch the history channel while I was ushered into the bathroom. I was told to take a quick shower. I might have tried to be quick when I first got in the shower, but once I felt how good the warm water running over my body was, I ended up staying in there for a while mainly to relax.

I got out of the shower and toweled off before wrapping the towel around me to head into the bedroom I shared with Alice. I stopped short when I saw what was laid out on the bed for me to wear in addition to my new red dress.

"What is this?" I asked holding up the new lingerie up.

"It's for you to wear under the dress, Bella," Alice replied slowly as if she was explaining this to a third grader.

"But where's the rest of it?" I continued.

"Bella, stop being silly and put it on," Alice told me firmly.

"We are not letting you out of this room wearing underwear that your grandmother might wear," Rose piped up blocking the exit.

"Fine," I groaned. I picked up the bra and panty set and walked myself back into the bathroom to change into it.

"I can't believe I'm wearing something like this," I muttered to myself. Leave it to those two to even think of things such as matching underwear.

After putting the undergarments on, I came back into the bedroom to put on the dress. Once I had the dress on, Alice and Rose ushered me into a chair so they could work on my hair and makeup.

"Okay, we're done," Alice said with a smile.

"You're going to leave this guy breathless," Rose added.

I looked in the mirror at myself and was blown away. They had managed to make my hair curl perfectly down my back. The makeup they added wasn't too much, but they managed to use just enough around my eyes that they really popped out and were shining with hidden excitement.

"Thanks, you guys," I told them giving each a hug.

"Is Jacob picking you up here or are you two meeting somewhere?" Alice asked.

"I'm meeting him by the pool," I told her. "It's almost seven so I guess I should head down there."

"Have fun tonight," Alice said.

"You too," I responded. I had turned to walk out the hotel room when I thought of something.

"Alice?" I asked.

"What is it Bella?" Alice questioned.

"If this date doesn't go as planned, can I send you a text?" I wondered.

"Bella, I'm sure it will be fine," Alice replied soothingly, "but, yes, you can call or text me and I'll help you out."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it," I told her before finally walking out the door to meet Jake.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N Thanks to those of you who sent reviews. This is the much sought after date with Jacob. Enjoy.

**Bella POV**

I saw him standing near the pool where we had planned to meet. The sun was still shining brightly and I could imagine the beauty of the location later in the day. At twilight, the water from the pool lights would be that shimmery blue. At least I'm able to start imagining romantic locations, I thought. Maybe this beach getaway is going to help my writing.

Reaching Jacob up close, I noticed that unlike me, he wasn't dressed up at all. He had on a worn pair of jeans and a Puddle of Mudd shirt. I just knew from this moment that tonight was probably going to be a bad date. Part of me wanted to skip out now while I could, but I knew that would be rude so I decided to go with it and hope for the best.

"You look nice, Bella," Jacob told me.

"Thanks," I replied hoping to not sound disappointed in the compliment. I was hoping for more of a beautiful or lovely. 'Nice' sounded like something I would hear if I had just put on a decent pair of jeans after being covered in mud or something. Okay, I told myself, I need to stop being pessimistic.

Jacob led me to his Volkswagen Rabbit. Instead of opening the passenger door for me, he just walked around to the driver's side of the car to get in. I shrugged without his noticing and got into the car.

He turned on the car and drove out of the parking lot. The radio was turned on playing some sort of heavy metal music that I haven't heard before. It wasn't the kind of music I would pick to listen to, but I didn't want to become the type of date who complained a lot so I kept quiet on his music preference.

"What do you like to do in your free time?" I asked trying to start up a conversation.

Jacob glanced my way before replying, "I hang out with my friends. Sometimes I work on cars in the garage at my house."

"What kind of stuff do you do to the cars?" I asked to continue the conversation along. I didn't know a thing about cars. If it needed an oil change, which I hear is simple to perform, I would get my dad to do it for me.

He gave me an appraising look before answering, "I like to fix up old cars from scratch. I would get into more detail, but you don't look like the kind of girl who would understand a word I said about it."

I nodded my head slightly and sat back waiting to see where we were headed. A few minutes later, the car pulled into the parking lot of a place called Buddy's Arcade. This is fantastic I thought dryly.

I stepped out of the car carefully because the parking lot was composed of loose gravel. I didn't want to make the evening worse by stumbling in the parking lot and end up bleeding all over the place. I gingerly walked around to the front of the car where Jacob was waiting for me and grabbed onto his arm so he could lead me into the front door.

The inside of the place was pretty much what I expected based on the name – an arcade. Although, I suppose you could say this place was more for adults considering the fact they apparently doubled as a restaurant, there were far too many children running rampant through the place screaming and laughing. It took all of my focus to keep the shocked expression from showing on my face. I imagine that someone who knew me better, such as Alice, would have been able to guess it regardless, but luckily for me, Jacob didn't know me that well yet.

Jacob led me over to a booth that was seated near a corner in the place. I was happy to think that he at least tried to give us a small amount of privacy by way of his selection. I was looking forward to trying to learn some more about him.

The waitress came over and asked, "What can I get you to drink?"

"Water with lemon please," I told her politely.

"I'll have a root beer," Jacob ordered.

I noticed him checking her out as she walked away from the table to get our drinks. It irritated me that I couldn't seem to keep his attention when we were on a date together, but that's how my past experiences usually went. The few that seemed to really notice me were usually the chess club type that would end up boring me with their conversation. I just wanted to find someone that would click with my personality. Someone that would share some of the same likes and dislikes as myself.

"So Bella," Jacob began, "tell me what you like to do in your free time."

I was happy that we were beginning to have a conversation. Enthusiastically, I answered, "I love to read and write."

"You read those stupid romance books?" Jacob asked incredulously.

I huffed at the assumption. "I have never read one of those types of books in my life. For the record, I prefer the classics like Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte."

"Whoa. Chill, chill," he said holding his hands up as if to ward me off. "I didn't mean anything by it, I just figured that most girls who read like to read those kinds of books."

"I am not most girls," I said still angry at his stupid male assumptions.

"Clearly," Jacob replied. "Just keep on reading whoever it was you said you liked to read."

I tried taking some deep breaths in order to calm me down before I attacked him on our first date.

The waitress brought over our drinks. "Have you decided what you would like?" she asked.

"Give me the bacon cheeseburger," Jacob told her.

"I'll have the grilled chicken salad and a Smile," I told her with a little bit of desperation in my voice.

"Coming right up," she replied with a little wink that Jacob didn't notice.

Jacob was looking at me with confusion written all over his face. He probably didn't understand my order to the waitress. I watched as the confused expression on his face was soon replaced by a wide grin.

"Hey James!" he called waving another guy over to our table.

"Jake, it's good to see you man," James said when he sauntered over. He looked over to me and gave me a creepy looking smile. "Who's the lovely lady?"

"James, this is my date, Bella," Jacob introduced. "Bella, this is one of my best friends, James."

James shook my hand, but seemed to hold onto it a little longer than necessary. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Bella."

"Likewise," I said.

"Hey man, come on and sit down with us," Jacob offered.

James glanced my way before saying, "I don't want to mess up your date, man."

"Bella doesn't mind, do you?" Jacob asked.

Well, isn't that wonderful to be so considerate. I forced a smile on my face before replying, "No, I don't mind at all."

Just as the boys had started an in-depth discussion of who the pro football teams were this year, the waitress arrived with our food and my drink. I thanked her profusely before taking a huge gulp and digging into my salad.

"Is that a Smile?" Jacob asked seeing the drink in front of me.

"Yes, it is," I answered shortly.

He just nodded and went back to eating his bacon cheeseburger and talking sports with James. At this point in the date, I decided that I didn't mind being ignored. I finished my food and the majority of my drink before making the decision that I needed some time away from the table.

"Hey, I'm just going to go use the restroom," I told Jacob who barely acknowledged me.

I made my way to the ladies room. I was happy to see that it was large and mostly unoccupied. I got out my cell phone and called Alice. These were desperate times and I needed to hear a friendly voice.

I waited for Alice to pick up. On the second ring, I heard the "Hello" I had been waiting for.

"Alice, I'm so glad you answered," I said.

"Bella, I told you I would keep the phone nearby," Alice responded. "What's wrong?"

"Where do I even begin?"

"Well, you've only been out for about an hour now," Alice said calmly, "where did Jacob take you?"

"He took me to Buddy's Arcade."

"Are you serious?" Alice asked with shock in her voice. "An arcade?"

I heard Emmett wooting in the background. "Everyone's in the room with you right?" I guessed.

Alice sighed, "Yeah, we've been having a blast over here with Rock Band competitions and now we're in the middle of watching a movie."

"Wish I could be there," I grumbled.

"Want me to come get you?"

"I'll think about it and give you a call or text later if it gets to that point."

"So, what else happened other than him taking you to an arcade for dinner?"

"He saw a friend of his and invited him over to our table where they've been discussing the pros and cons of professional football for the past thirty minutes. I got desperate and had to order a drink."

"Bella..." Alice chided.

"I know. I know. But I promise it was the only way I could possibly make it through this evening."

"Just be careful, okay?" Alice said gently. "You know that your tolerance to alcohol isn't that great and you don't want to get drunk with someone you can't trust."

"I know Alice. I didn't finish the whole thing for that very reason," I assured her. "Well, I've been in here for about ten minutes now, so I should probably let you go and get back to Jacob."

"Okay, but remember to call if you need me to come get you," Alice reminded me.

"Don't worry, I'll remember."

"Bye Bella."

"Bye," I replied hanging up the phone. I replaced the phone in my purse and took another deep breath before walking back out of the restroom to our table.

When I reached the table, I saw that James had left sometime during my extended stay in the restroom. I sat back down grateful that it was back to being Jacob and me even though that still didn't mean that the date would go any better from here.

Instead of finishing my drink, I reached for the water I had since neglected. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get the least bit inebriated, so I could keep my thought processes normal.

"Want to get out of here?" Jacob asked.

"Sure," I replied and stood back up in order to follow him on his way back to the car.

We got into the car and Jacob started it up. He drove out of the parking lot and down the coastal highway. I wasn't sure where we were headed, only that we seemed to be going in an easterly direction.

"Where are we going to now?" I questioned.

"It's a surprise," Jacob said grinning to me in the darkness.

I'm not sure I can take any more of his surprises, but went along for the ride. I tried to look out the passenger window and watch the scenery of the highway go by us, but it was too dark to really make out anything.

A few minutes later, Jacob turned the car into what appeared to be a deserted looking beach. It could have been beautiful if I was here with the right person. In my head flashes of Edward came to mind. I wondered if he was having fun with the others playing video games.

I turned to Jacob startled as he stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. That's when I realized that he brought me here to be alone. Of course, I suppose I should have figured that out earlier, but my brain was busy with images of Edward.

"Umm, look Jake," I started, "I really don't think this is a good idea."

Jacob appeared to be angry at my statement. "Why do you not think this is a _good idea_?" he asked nearly spitting out the last words.

I was getting frustrated with his idiotic behavior and had enough. "Look, I don't know what you expected tonight, but this was one of the worst dates I've ever had. I would prefer if you just take me home now."

Jacob just laughed. "Well, I would _prefer_ if you just get out of my car."

"What?" I asked confused.

"I said get out of my car," he repeated with gritted teeth.

I never expected this kind of response. I decided that I might be better off getting out in the middle of nowhere in comparison with trying to mend up this riff between us and have to spend even more time with him.

I stepped out of the car and closed the door only to watch him swiftly pull away leaving me on the beach alone.

"What have I gotten myself into now?" I whispered.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the number hoping the person on the other end would pick up.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N Hope everyone is enjoying so far. Still don't own Twilight.

* * *

**Edward's POV**

I was sitting in the living room of the house with Emmett waiting on Alice to show up. She had mentioned that there might be a couple more people coming with her, so I was interested to see who they might be. We had planned to have a movie night, but Emmett had the Playstation 3 set up for gaming too.

I heard the doorbell chime and went to get the door. I opened the door to find Alice standing there smiling as usual along with two others I hadn't met yet.

"Hey Edward," Alice spoke. "This is Jasper and Rosalie. Jasper and Rose, this is Edward."

I shook both of their hands and led everyone into the living room. That was when I noticed they were carrying bags with them.

"What's with the bags?" I asked after they had introduced themselves to Emmett.

"We're having a sleepover," Alice answered cheerfully.

"Cool!" Emmett exclaimed.

"That's fine and all, but shouldn't you have mentioned this to one of us ahead of time?" I asked.

"Silly Edward, I knew you wouldn't mind," Alice answered. "Besides, Bella will end up here after her date."

"So tonight's the night," I muttered.

Alice heard me though and said, "Don't worry, Bella was even more unenthusiastic about tonight than she is when I take her shopping."

That thought cheered me a little and helped me to settle down on one of the sofas in the room. I knew Emmett had found the right girl as soon as I heard them start talking about cars. Jasper and Alice were looking cozy on one of the love seats. It made me feel a little lonely, but I tried to interject myself into conversation as much as possible to seem lively to the rest of the group. It wouldn't do for everyone to think I was a killjoy.

It wasn't long before Emmett, Jasper, and Alice got together and started to play Rock Band. I think I zoned out after watching them play for thirty minutes. My mind was elsewhere and it probably showed to every single person in that room.

Emmett decided it was time to start a movie. The group let him pick the movie out, which turned out to be interesting. Emmett came back from where we store our massive movie collection with Kung Fu Panda.

I tried to get into the movie like everyone else. I had to admit that it was entertaining to watch Emmett jump up and try to do the same moves that he was seeing on the screen. The movie was just about over when I heard Alice's phone ring.

Alice picked up the phone to answer and said, "Hello." I watched her nod her head once before saying, "Bella, I told you I would keep the phone nearby. What's wrong?"

My ears perked up when I heard that it was Bella on the phone with Alice. The fact that her date might be going badly made me become hopeful that I would soon have the chance that I so very much wanted to take her out on a date myself.

"Well, you've only been out for about an hour now," Alice said calmly, "where did Jacob take you?"

I wondered where Bella was, if Jacob had taken her to a movie or dinner at a fancy restaurant. I guess it couldn't be a movie since she's calling now and any movie that you could see would be longer than an hour.

I came out of my musings when I heard Alice almost shout, "Are you serious? An arcade?"

I grimaced at the thought of taking a beautiful girl to an _arcade_. Emmett began cheering and yelling, "An arcade, that's awesome!"

Rosalie slapped Emmett in the back of the head and Alice sighed as she looked around the room. "Yeah," she said, "we've been having a blast over here with Rock Band competitions and now we're in the middle of watching a movie."

Alice paused for a moment before asking, "Want me to come get you?"

Apparently she received a negative response from Bella because she continued, "So, what else happened other than him taking you to an arcade for dinner?"

I found myself becoming increasingly more interested in everything about Bella's date and hoped I could hear all about it. I'm not sure what was said to cause Alice to say Bella's name in a slightly chiding tone of voice.

"Just be careful, okay?" Alice said gently. "You know that your tolerance to alcohol isn't that great and you don't want to get drunk with someone you can't trust."

I can't believe Bella would be so thoughtless as to be drinking too much on a date with someone she barely knows. I think for the rest of the night I'm going to be frantically worrying about her until she gets home safe and sound.

"Okay, but remember to call if you need me to come get you," Alice reminded her again. "Bye Bella."

"What happened?" I asked before Alice could barely get off the phone.

Alice sighed before she spoke, "Jacob took Bella on a date to some place called Buddy's Arcade, and he's been pretty much ignoring her the whole time talking to another friend of his who happened to be there."

"Bella's really on a date at an arcade?" Emmett clarified. He started laughing and boomed, "Awesome!"

Rosalie smacked his head for that comment. "Shut up Emmett," Rosalie said, "It's not cool that Bella is having a crappy date."

"Yeah, but still... an arcade..." Emmett continued shaking his head.

"So does Bella want us to come get her?" I asked Alice hopefully.

I watched her shake her head. "She told me that she was hoping they would leave soon since they were finished eating. If they didn't leave soon, she was going to call back so that we could come to the rescue," Alice responded.

"Okay, so I guess we wait," I spoke while plopping back down on the love seat.

All of us, including Jasper who had been fairly quiet during the whole debacle, seemed to just be staring at the television, which was now playing a mindless sitcom that nobody was interested in. I think we were all expecting Bella to call back, so we could go get her.

It seemed like hours had gone by, but in reality it was only a few minutes without another phone call. After fifteen minutes had gone by, Alice began fidgeting.

"Maybe she decided that she didn't need us to come," Alice said with uncertainty in her tone.

"Maybe we should just head out to that arcade anyway," Emmett said.

Before anyone could respond, Alice's phone rang again. Everyone's head turned to watch as she picked up the phone to answer.

"It's Bella," she told us softly.

"Hey Bella," Alice answered. She listened for a moment before she exclaimed, "He did what?!"

I think we were practically off our seats wondering what had happened now.

"Tell me where you think you are," Alice said.

"She doesn't know where she is?" I asked.

"What the hell?" Emmett said.

"Okay, you left the arcade and headed east out of the city limits and stopped at a deserted beach," Alice repeated looking toward me.

I listened intently to the one-sided conversation trying to gather as much information as possible. I already planned on heading out to get Bella, so she could come back to the house with the rest of us.

"Okay, got it," Alice told her, "we'll be there as quick as we can. Stay safe until we get there."

Alice hung up after telling Bella "Bye" and looked at the group of us with a sad expression.

"What happened?" Jasper asked.

"Apparently, Jacob drove Bella to some deserted beach and they got into an argument," Alice replied with a grimace.

"That mangy dog!" I yelled in anger.

"Is Bella okay?" Rosalie asked with concern in her voice.

"Well, she stopped him from doing anything," Alice began.

"But...," Emmett said hoping to get Alice to hurry up with the story.

"He got mad, kicked her out of the car, and drove off leaving her there," Alice finished.

I bristled at what that mongrel had done. Bella was out there all alone in an unfamiliar place. She must be scared or at least anxious. I couldn't stand there any longer listening to everyone go on and on about how terrible Jacob was. As much as I wanted to find him and beat the devil out of him, my first priority was Bella.

I grabbed a light jacket from the closet and my keys and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Emmett asked.

"I'm going to find Bella," I called over my shoulder.

"Call us when you find her," Alice pleaded.

I nodded my affirmation and walked out the door to my silver Volvo. I turned the car on once I got in and wasted no time in getting onto the highway.

I began driving in the direction that Bella had said they had been traveling in. I knew of the arcade, even though it wasn't a place I had actually been to before. I quickly made my way there and then headed in an easterly direction along the road that Bella had recalled following.

I couldn't be sure which beach area Bella was at because this area had multiple locations that many locals were fond of where you could pull into a small lot and walk along the beach without battling crowds of tourists. I knew of a few of them and pulled in as I reached them one by one along the road I was traveling along. I kept my eyes peeled in case there might be one that I didn't know about.

I had been driving along this highway for about fifteen minutes now and began reaching some very rural areas between towns. I was starting to get antsy because I hadn't managed to locate the right beach yet. I was trying to keep my head from playing out all the possible scenarios of things that could happen to Bella while she was all alone on that beach.

The next beach access I came upon was one that I haven't noticed before. I pulled in with a vengeance and came to a screeching stop when I saw that beautiful brown-eyed girl standing there all alone. She was standing nearby with her arms held tightly around herself. My breath caught at her crestfallen face and I wanted to do anything I could to change it into one of happiness.

I practically jumped out of the car leaving my car door wide open and ran up to Bella. Her eyes had widened in disbelief at my appearance and I saw a smile begin to form, which immediately warmed my heart.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N A big thanks to SM for making this wonderful creation.

* * *

**Bella's POV**

I watched as a silver Volvo screeched to a stop no less than ten feet from where I was standing. I didn't know anyone who drove a car like that, so I was concerned at first as to who might be blazing up here like that. I had really hoped that Alice would get here before anyone else did.

Considering the fact that I'm at a beach, there wasn't any place for me to hide if it was some crazed criminal. The beaches down here didn't even have sand dunes on them. Just soft, white sand that covered the very flat ground.

The car door opened and I observed a tall male with unruly bronze hair jump out. It couldn't possibly be Edward, could it? When he ran over to me and I saw his face clearly in the moonlight, I knew that my night had completely changed course.

"Bella," Edward said while pulling me in for a hug.

I loved the feeling of being surrounded by his arms and hoped it wouldn't end anytime soon. It was a feeling of complete bliss.

He pulled back a little, but kept his hands on my arms. "Bella, are you okay?" he asked me with concern lacing his voice while looking directly into my eyes.

"I'm fine now," I told him smiling up to meet his gaze. "Thank you for coming to get me."

"There was no way in hell that I was letting you wander around here at night all alone," he told me firmly with a shake of his head. "I still can't believe that creep would just leave you here."

I could see Edward working himself into more of a frenzy and wanted to stop him from becoming angrier. "Shh... You're here now, so everything is fine again," I told him while softly stroking his cheek with my fingers."

Edward closed his eyes and leaned into my touch. After a moment he opened his eyes and removed his hands from my arms. I was disappointed at the loss of contact, but that didn't last long. Edward brought his hands back up in order to cup my face with them. His green eyes were smoldering.

"Bella," he spoke softly while looking me directly in my eyes, "I love you."

I saw the love shining through his eyes and quickly replied, "I love you too, Edward." Those words rolled off my tongue so easily and it felt so right saying them to Edward.

He brought his face closer to mine and my breath hitched at the proximity of the two of us. I could feel my heart rate speed up to a manic pace. Our lips met for the first time and I loved every second of it. The gentleness of his lips against mine was a wonderful feeling that I never wanted to end. Our lips moved together as one, and I relished in the touch.

I'm not sure how long we would have stood there kissing before breaking apart, but it was cut short when Edward's phone rang in his pocket. He pulled away slowly and grabbed his phone out of his pocket while glancing at the screen.

"Alice," he mouthed to me before answering

"Hello, O Feisty One," he answered with a grin. I covered my mouth to hide my giggles at the silly name that fit her well.

He listened for a moment before nodding and stating, "She's standing right next to me."

I think Alice might have then asked to speak to me because Edward grinned and winked at me before saying, "I'm sorry but Bella needs to spend more time talking to me, so she is currently off limits."

I laughed at that knowing that if Alice _really_ wants to talk to me, all she would have to do is call my phone. Edward listened for a bit longer before saying, "I'll have her back in about ten minutes or so."

He hung up the phone and looked over at me once again. "You really are beautiful tonight in that dress," he said while stroking my cheek with a fingertip.

I almost melted on the spot, but managed to remain upright as he placed his hand on the small of my back and led me to his car. Edward opened the passenger door for me and helped me in like a true gentleman. I smiled at how perfect Edward really is.

I watched him get in the driver's side and turn the car around to get back on the highway.

"So where are we going?" I asked him.

He grabbed my hand and spoke, "I'm taking you home with me."

I must have given him a confused look because he laughed and continued, "Everyone is still at my house, so I'm taking you there."

"Are your parents there too?"

"No, they went to a hospital charity benefit tonight, so they won't get in until a little later."

"You don't think they would actually mind a whole bunch of people there do you?"

"They wouldn't mind a bit."

"Hmm... I can't wait to meet them," I spoke thoughtfully.

"Really?" Edward questioned surprised.

"Well, not that you've told me a lot about them, but they seem like really nice people and they did create both you and Emmett. That definitely counts for something."

Edward chuckled beside me. "I'll make sure to introduce you to them when they come in tonight, unless you're already asleep. Actually, Alice would probably be more excited to meet them than you," he continued with a secretive smile on his face.

I looked over at him and questioned, "Why might that be?"

"I don't know if I should tell you because I definitely want this to be a surprise for Alice," he mused.

"Come on," I pleaded, "I won't tell a soul. Please?"

"How can I say no to that?," Edward said with a smile. I just grinned back and waited for him to tell me what this big surprise was.

"Well, you know that Alice is going to be working for that interior decorating company," he began.

"Yeah," I said not knowing where he was going with this.

"The owner of the company is Esme Cullen," he continued.

I was trying to put the pieces together. Wait, Edward's last name is Cullen. I looked up at him and I knew he could see the intuition shining through my eyes.

"Your mom is Esme Cullen?"

I watched him nod with a smile on his face. "Oh, I can't wait for Alice to find out! Don't worry, I'm not going to tell her," I spoke quickly knowing he thought I was going to ruin the surprise for her.

He gave me that wonderful smile of his and said, "Thanks, I'm really looking forward to see Alice's reaction when she finds out later tonight."

I laughed, "That will definitely be something to see. So what has everybody been doing at your house so far tonight?"

"Well, there was a Rock Band competition early on before Emmett picked Kung Fu Panda to watch." Edward laughed before saying, "You should have been there to watch Emmett try to do the martial arts moves in the movie. It was hilarious."

I laughed imagining what it must have looked like for Emmett to try out Kung Fu moves that he watched in a movie. "So did anything else go on?" I asked.

"Not really, although I have to admit that I wasn't paying that much attention to everyone around me. I was worrying about you mostly," he told me seeming embarrassed by the action.

I stroked his hand with mine and told him, "It's okay. I'm fine and here with you now."

Edward smiled and squeezed my hand, "This is where I intend on you staying."

The rest of the drive only lasted a few more minutes, but it was done in a comfortable silence among us. It felt nice to me to have our feelings out in the open even if it probably could have happened earlier had I not been forced onto Jake. I still grimaced at the thought of that whole date. It was definitely the worst date of my life although it did at least end well with Edward, my knight in shining armor, showing up to rescue me from being deserted in the middle of nowhere.

I was brought back to focus on our surroundings as I took in Edward turning off the highway onto a long, winding drive that I imagined led up to his house. I was curious to see where he lived.

I knew he still lived with his parents out of the convenience it brought him while doing his residency. He had mentioned in passing that he had contemplated getting an apartment of his own, but with some of the schedules that he's had to work over the past few months, he was better off not having an apartment that would seem desolate. He preferred being able to hang around the house and get to see his family, even if for short periods of time, instead of trying to managed the time it would take to go back and forth between places to see them.

Edward pulled up outside the front door and stopped the car. He came around and opened the passenger door to help me out before I even had the chance to unbuckle my seatbelt. He took my hand again as he led me up the front steps of his home.

The door was opened almost before we even reached it. Waiting on the other side of it was not only a relieved looking Alice, but also Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N So this is the longest chapter I've written so far. It contains another great night of game playing of course. Hope you enjoy. Too bad I don't own Twilight or the characters.

* * *

**Bella POV**

"I hope you guys haven't been standing by the door all this time," I said with a smile.

"Bella, we were so worried," Alice told me while reaching out to give me a tight hug.

"Don't worry guys," I told them, "I was perfectly fine. I just needed someone to pick me up since I couldn't very well walk back."

I heard Edward make a disgusted sound in the back of his throat when I said this, but he didn't say anything otherwise. I think that if he had half the chance, he might try to find Jacob just to punch him for leaving me at that beach.

"How did you enjoy the arcade?" Emmett asked.

I grimaced, "About as much as Rosalie would on her first date with someone, Emmett."

I saw him look over at Rosalie and then shake his head. Rosalie mouthed a "thank you" to me. Hopefully, I helped her out a little because I could tell that they liked each other. I wouldn't want her to have to be taken out on a date to an arcade, and that's something that I could see Emmett doing just because he probably wouldn't think that decision through like he should.

"Hey, let's stop standing around the doorway and go into the living room," Edward finally said.

We all flowed into the living room and took seats around the room in the various chairs and sofas.

"So what should we do?" Jasper asked in his quiet southern voice.

"I know," Alice said bouncing around, "we should play truth or dare!"

I groaned knowing that the game of truth or dare might be even worse than the twenty questions we played before.

"Oh come on Bella," Alice said, "don't be like that. We'll have fun."

"Okay, fine," I grumbled looking around the room.

All the others seemed to find the game a good time consumer. I was just concerned about what I was going to end up having to do.

"I'll go first," Rosalie volunteered. "Jasper, truth or dare?"

Jasper smirked and said, "Dare."

Rosalie rubbed her hands together and grinned at Alice. "I dare you to play the rest of the game in your underwear."

"Crap," Jasper muttered.

I averted my gaze as Jasper took off his clothes down to what I now knew were boxers. I didn't want to see that much of him, but it was inevitable with him just sitting there in front of all of us.

"Rosalie, truth or dare?" Jasper asked.

"Dare, oh dear brother of mine," Rosalie replied.

"I dare you to buy an outfit from Walmart and wear it out somewhere in public," Jasper responded with a grin.

"Ugh... Walmart," Rosalie said. "Okay, tomorrow I'll go to Walmart and all of you can accompany me to make sure I fulfill the stupid dare."

"I'll go next," Edward said. "Emmett, truth or dare?"

Emmett rubbed his hands together with a grin on his face. "Dare me little brother."

Edward seemed to contemplate what the dare could be for a moment. "I dare you to go to our nearest neighbor and cry to them about your missing teddy bear."

We all laughed heartily over the dare that Emmett was now going to have to perform.

"Okay, let's go," Emmett said.

I didn't particularly want to get up and go walking around to the nearest neighbor in my high heels. My feet were already a little sore from wearing them earlier tonight, but with a sigh I began to put them back on my feet.

"Okay, don't ever tell anyone outside of this room that I did this," Alice said to me, "but I brought you some flip flops that you can wear instead of the heels."

"Alice, you're a lifesaver," I told her while giving her a huge hug. "My feet thank you."

Alice laughed as I put the proffered flip flops on my feet and went outside to gather with everyone else.

"Have you decided which neighbor you're going to?" Rosalie asked Emmett.

Emmett laughed before saying, "We really only have one option. The nearest neighbor would be the equivalent of a block or two down the road from here."

"I can't wait to see the look on their faces," Edward said with that crooked smile that I was beginning to love.

We ended up walking back down their driveway toward the road as pairs. Emmett and Rosalie were in the lead followed by Alice and Jasper. Edward and I trailed behind the others.

"So what are these neighbors like?" I asked him.

He chuckled softly before replying, "They're an older couple who have been married for as long as I can remember. I'm debating on whether they'll think Emmett has lost his mind or comfort him like they would a little child."

A few minutes later found the group of us standing in the neighbors front yard. Emmett went up to ring their doorbell while the rest of us stayed far enough back that we wouldn't be as noticeable but would still be able to overhear the conversation.

I watched with wide eyes as a small, elderly woman opened the door. "May I help you?" she asked in a kind voice.

Emmett sounded like he was on the verge of crying as he spoke, "I lost my teddy bear. Have you seen it?"

"Oh dear," the lady said, "what does your bear look like?"

By now, Emmett really sounded like he was sobbing. He answered her with shaky voice, "Bella Bear is tan in color with nice brown eyes. Oh, please tell me you've seen her. I don't think I'll ever be able to sleep again without her. Bella Bear protected me from all the nasty creatures hiding under the bed and in my closet."

I rolled my eyes and looked at Edward as I listened to Emmett naming his fictional teddy bear 'Bella Bear'. This whole little charade would probably have been up from the start had the nice lady been observant enough to notice that there was a large group of us watching intently as Emmett told his story to her. Luckily for all of us, she was entirely focused on Emmett and seemed to want to try to help him if possible.

"Dear child," the lady said, "I don't believe I've seen Bella Bear here."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Emmett pleaded.

"Yes, but wait here a minute," the lady requested.

She turned and walked slowly back into the house. We all looked at each other wondering what she had returned inside the house for. A moment later we found out with surprise.

She came back to the front door with a teddy bear in her hands. "Since your teddy bear is missing, why don't you take this one instead?"

Emmett looked at her in shock. "I don't think I could take this from you," he finally managed to say.

"Oh don't be silly," she told him. "After all, you need a teddy bear to sleep with at night and all of our children as well as their grandchildren are too old for such things."

I looked at Edward and we barely managed to contain our laughter when the lady talked about how her grandchildren were too old for teddy bears.

Emmett took the bear offering his thanks to her over and over. She just smiled and waved at him as we all turned to head back to the Cullen's house. Emmett was flashing his new teddy bear around for everyone to see. He seemed pleased with the turn of events, and the rest of us managed to get a good laugh over it.

I lingered behind the rest of the them along with Edward on our walk back to the house. "What's on your mind?" I asked him after noticing that he seemed lost in thought.

He glanced up at me before speaking. "I was just thinking about the future."

_Cryptic_, I thought. "What about the future?" I asked aloud.

I could tell by the pause he took before answering that he was measuring his response for me. "I really enjoy being around you, Bella," he finally responded.

"But..."

Edward sighed, and I was on teetering on edge waiting for what he had to say. Of course, my answer would have to wait because Emmett chose that opportune moment to come rushing over to me and swing me around through the air yelling, "Bella Bear!" at the top of his lungs.

"Put me down you big oaf!" I screamed unable to contain my laughter over his silliness.

"Have you seen my new teddy bear?" Emmett asked while holding out the bear for me to get a closer look at.

I smiled up at him and said, "Yes, I saw your bear."

"Guess what I'm going to name her?"

"What?" I asked.

"Bella Bear of course!"

"Great," I said dryly.

Emmett went off to bother the rest of them and Edward once again joined me. We were within viewing distance of the house by now, and I was wondering what was going to be the next task in this game. I don't think I've ever played a game of Truth or Dare when the tasks were anything other than the usual mundane items of making prank phone calls to people we know or doing something that would inevitably make a fool of ourselves. Though I certainly wasn't looking forward to any future dare on my part, this was the most interesting and fun game I have ever played.

I was glad that I came down here for a vacation. Meeting this set of new people was helping me to broaden my horizons, and I was always getting some potential ideas on how to complete my book just by hanging around in their presence.

I came back to the present and smiled up at Edward as he ushered me through the front door of their home with his hand located on the small of my back. I relished in feeling the lightest touch from him. It also scared me to some extent because I have never felt such strong emotions for anyone before. I haven't known Edward very long at all, but already I can't imagine what my life would be like without him. This thought shocked and scared the crap out of me; since logically, I shouldn't be this invested with someone so soon. I tried to put all of these fears out of my mind for now, and focus on having fun with my new friends.

We all sat in a circle in the living room this time using pillows and leaning against some of the sofas in the room to get comfortable. It was Emmett's turn to pick someone, so he gained all of our attention as he contemplated who he would choose.

"Bella, truth or dare?" he finally asked.

I groaned. If I say 'truth', he'll definitely ask me a really embarrassing question. This is Emmett after all. On the other hand, if I say 'dare', I could definitely be dared to do something embarrassing, too.

"Dare," I answered. I figure that an embarrassing dare is not quite as bad as an embarrassing question that has to be answered truthfully.

He had an evil grin on his face and I immediately began to doubt the decision making skills. "I dare you and Rose to kiss each other on the lips."

Rosalie and I both grimaced at each other before she smacked the back of his head with her hand. At least Emmett tried to look a bit sheepish afterwards even though everyone in that room knew that he was anticipating this like a kid waiting for Christmas to come.

"Ready?" I asked her.

"Let's get this over with," she replied glaring at Emmett. "You better be careful or you'll end getting dared to kiss your brother," she warned him.

"Gross," Edward and Emmett both said with disgusted looks on their faces.

"And why is it any different for the two of us to kiss?" Rosalie asked indicating me and her with her hand.

"Because you're girls," Emmett said. "Two girls kissing is hot."

I watched as both Edward and Jasper nodded to confirm this statement of Emmett's.

"Idiots," Rosalie said.

Finally, I leaned in to give her a kiss. Luckily for us, Emmett didn't give us a time frame or any other specifics on how to kiss. This meant that I gave her a quick peck on the lips and we backed away from each other quickly to sit back in our original places.

"Hey, that's no fair," Emmett complained.

"We complied with your stupid dare so get over it," Rosalie told him. "Bella, it's your turn now."

"Alice, truth or dare?" I asked knowing that she loves to choose the dares.

"Dare, of course," Alice replied confirming my thought.

"I dare you to get your hands on Mike's phone number and prank call him."

"Funny you should say that," Alice began, "I have his number right here in my bag."

I looked at her in disbelief. "When did you ever get his number?"

"I kept that ticket from the diner when he left the number for you to call him," she replied.

"Who's Mike?" Edward asked with what seemed to be a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Mike is this guy that's been trying to flirt with Bella ever since we got here," Alice told him. "We seem to see him everywhere we turn."

I had a feeling that Edward might be on the lookout for Mike anytime we were around the beach. I watched as Alice dug the phone number out of her bag and retrieved her cell phone from the table she left it on. She entered the number and put it on speakerphone so all of us could hear the conversation.

"Hello?" Mike answered.

"Hello, is this Mike?" Alice asked.

"Yes, who is this?"

Alice looked at me and grinned widely. "This is Bella. You remember me from the beach and the diner, right?"

She did not just do that. "Alice, I'm going to kill you," I hissed quietly so that Mike wouldn't be able to hear it on his end.

Alice just smiled at me and continued talking. "I was thinking that maybe we could meet up somewhere. Would you be interested in joining me at this karaoke bar I saw a few blocks away from the hotel? That's the one. How about you meet me at seven? Great, I'll see you then," Alice said before hanging up the phone.

"What the...," I said to Alice. "You set me up on a date with that creep?"

"I am not letting you go out with another guy," Edward said firmly while wrapping his arm around me. "I plan to keep you to myself," he whispered in my ear making me shiver slightly.

"Don't worry," Alice said waving us off. "When Mike shows up at the karaoke place tomorrow night to see you, you'll be up on stage singing a particular song."

"What song?" I asked her.

"It's a surprise so don't worry about anything," Alice replied. "You know that even _I_ wouldn't have you go out with Mike."

"Okay, if you're sure about this," I finally said.

"Trust me, I know these things," Alice spoke while pointing to her head.

"Okay, my turn!" Alice said brightly. "Edward, truth or dare?"

Edward smirked, "Dare."

Alice smiled before saying, "I dare you to kiss a girl in this room."

"Hmm... Any girl in the room?" Edward asked pretending to think about his choices. "Well, there's really only one girl I would want to kiss."

He looked over at me with a smile, and I felt my heart do a flip flop. He removed the arm that had been around my shoulder and used both hands to cup my face. When he finally started to lean in, my breathing became erratic and my heart felt like it was pounding in my chest so loudly that everyone in the room could hear it.

His lips met mine in a soft kiss and the world disappeared around us. We continued kissing and I kept trying to get closer and closer to Edward until I finally ended up in his lap. I'm not sure how long we were kissing each other because we both seemed to lose all track of time, but we were soon interrupted with a chorus of throat clearing.

Edward and I broke apart only to see his parents standing in the doorway observing us. I was mortified at them seeing us kissing like that and immediately turned tomato red with my blush. I noticed Jasper was trying to cover himself up to the best of his ability since he was still only clothed in boxers.

"Edward, dear, would you mind introducing your friends to us, particularly the beautiful girl you were so enthusiastically kissing?" his mother asked.

"And the guy who is here in just his boxers?" his father added with a smile.

Edward's parents were beautiful. His dad was tall, lean, and generally handsome with his pale skin and blonde hair. Edward's mother had caramel colored hair and seemed so open and friendly. I could tell within seconds that I would enjoy being around both of them.

"Mom, dad, this is Bella," Edward introduced.

I stood up and grasped each of their hands in mine. "It's a pleasure to meet both of you," I said.

"Mr. And Mrs. Cullen, my name is Jasper Hale," Jasper said after standing with a blanket wrapped around him to the best of his ability. "That's my sister, Rosalie, sitting over there beside Emmett."

"Hi! I'm Alice Brandon," Alice said excitedly.

"Well, it certainly is a pleasure to meet all of you," Edward's father said. "By the way, I expect all of you to call me Carlisle. Mr. Cullen makes me feel older than I want to be," he said with a slight chuckle.

"And please feel free to call me Esme," Edward's mother spoke.

I tried to hide my smile since I was waiting on Alice to put the pieces together and realize that this was the same Esme Cullen that she would be working for soon. I looked over at her just as her eyes brightened with her excitement and she began jumping up and down. I sincerely hope that Carlisle and Esme don't become frightened of her hyperactivity.

"You're Esme Cullen?" Alice asked still bouncing up and down.

"Yes, dear," Esme answered looking a little startled by Alice's enthusiasm.

"I can't believe it; I'm going to be working for you!" Alice nearly shouted, although it came out so fast that I don't think anyone really understood what she just said.

"I'm sorry," Esme said kindly, "could you repeat that?"

Alice nodded her head quickly and said, "I can't believe that you're Esme Cullen, the interior designer. I'm going to be working for you."

Esme smiled, "So you are the Alice that I've heard so much about. Well, I'll have to take you by the shop sometime tomorrow morning so you can look around if that's okay with you."

"That would be wonderful," Alice replied with a huge smile on her face.

"So why don't you tell us what you were up to when we came home tonight?" Carlisle asked.

"We were playing Truth or Dare," Emmett said.

"So that would explain why Jasper is sitting here with practically nothing on and Edward was busy kissing Bella," Carlisle mused.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Edward would have been kissing Bella regardless," Emmett replied. "He's been wanting to hang around her every second of the day since they met."

I flushed with embarrassment and I heard Edward groan beside me. One of these days, I might have to get Emmett back for some of this.

"Where did you meet each other, Bella?" Carlisle asked.

"We bumped into each other at the airport," I answered.

"Well, that explains a lot," Esme said smiling at me.

I looked at both of them and then at Edward with what I knew was confusion written all over my face.

Carlisle must have noticed because he spoke again, "Ever since Edward got home from the airport, he's been acting strangely. I wondered if he was nervous about starting his residency at the hospital, but now I realize that he has hopelessly fallen for you."

I was surprised by his comment. I looked to Edward who seemed a bit chagrined by his father's observation.

"So, since we interrupted your game, would you mind telling us your plans for the evening?" Esme asked.

Edward answered, "Well, we were planning on having a sleepover down here in the living room using some of the sleeping bags that we have from camping. Is that okay?"

"Okay course it is," Esme replied with a smile. "I think we'll be heading up to bed for the night, but make yourselves at home."

We all said good night before dispersing around the house. Jasper went to put on some more clothes. Edward and Emmett went to collect sleeping bags and pillows. Rosalie and Alice decided it was time to have some snacks, so they went into the kitchen to see what they could find. I heard them mention popcorn and soda in passing. I wandered around the bottom level of house for a few minutes before deciding that I should go ahead and get comfortable instead of wearing this dress.

I walked out of the music room toward the kitchen when I almost bumped into Edward.

"Sorry," I said. "I was going to ask Alice where she put my clothes."

Edward gave me that wonderful crooked grin of his. "She put them in my room. Come on and I'll show you."

He led me back up to his room where I saw a bag sitting on his bed that Alice had packed for me.

"Thanks for showing me where she put this stuff. If Alice had her way, I might be wearing this dress all night."

"Well, it is a nice dress," Edward said appreciatively.

Of course a comment like that made my blush appear once again.

"You can change in here or in the bathroom," Edward said.

He left me at that point so that I could change my clothes. I decided the safer option might be to stick with the bathroom because Emmett lives in this house, too. Luckily, Alice had actually packed some clothes I liked. I pulled on some yoga pants and a tank top. After dressing, I brushed my teeth and combed out my hair. Once I finished I headed back downstairs.

The living room had been transformed during the time I was changing. It was now full of air mattresses, blankets, and pillows. Alice and Rosalie had managed to find some popcorn apparently because there were two huge bowls of it in the middle of the room along with some other miscellaneous snacks.

As I walked into the room, Edward reached out to pull me down beside him on one of the air mattresses. Everyone else was also paired off in the room. Emmett and Rosalie shared an air mattress while Alice and Jasper shared another. Someone had already chosen a movie to watch, so I settled back against Edward's chest and relaxed in the comfort of this position.

It turned out that we were watching Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I suppose that was a good choice since it had something in it for everyone. Occasionally, Edward would kiss me under my ear or brush through my hair with his hands. Every movement would relax me further until I eventually fell asleep against him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Day 4**

**Edward's POV**

I woke up this morning before everyone else in the living room. After Bella fell asleep last night during the movie, I had gently eased her down into a normal sleeping position on the mattress, and then curled up behind her holding her to me all night long. I smiled as I saw that we were still in this position. It felt so natural to be like this around her.

I smiled as I remembered last night. What had begun as a horrible evening of me worrying about Bella ended up with us deciding to begin dating each other. I can still recall the taste of her lips against mine during the game of Truth or Dare. I found it absolutely endearing how she became so embarrassed when my parents came into the room in the middle of that. Of course, if they hadn't, I might have continued kissing her well into the night. Everything just felt so right with the world in that moment and I forgot everything and everyone around us when I was with her.

The one downside to all of this was that she would be leaving for Washington eventually. I tried to push that idea aside because I really did not want to think about when Bella would be leaving me. I decided to try to make the best of the time we have together. I could try to take her to as many places as possible before she has to go back home.

I could hear some movement in the kitchen, so I decided to ease myself up and go see who was in there. I figured that it would be one of my parents since everyone else was still sleeping. I gave Bella a light kiss on her forehead and got up.

I walked into the kitchen to find my mother making breakfast. "Good morning," I greeted her.

"Good morning," she replied back. "I decided to make you kids breakfast before I left with Alice to go to the shop."

"Thanks."

"Come sit," she said patting one of the stools at the countertop.

I came over, sat down, and waited patiently for her to start talking. If my mother ever had anything to say, this was how she operated usually. She would ask you to sit down and give you something to drink, in this case she slid over a large glass of orange juice.

"Tell me about Bella," she requested.

I couldn't keep the smile off my face at the mention of her name, which I'm sure my mother duly noted. "She's absolutely perfect," I said. "I just met her a few days ago, and I can't even imagine being around any other girl besides Bella. She's so witty, funny, brave, and a dozen other things that I could name off for you."

Esme just laughed. "Edward, dear, you don't have to try to prove to me why you like her or want to be around her. Besides the fact that we _did_ walk in on you passionately kissing her in a room full of other people, I could tell that you were infatuated with her afterwards."

"How could you tell?"

"I've never seen you look so happy before, plus the two of you couldn't keep your eyes off each other all evening."

I hesitated before asking, "Mom, what do I do when she goes back to Washington?"

"Have the two of you talked about this at all?"

"No, but then we really didn't become a couple until yesterday."

"I suggest you discuss it first. If you two really love each other, then things will work out one way or another."

"Thanks, I needed to hear that."

Esme gave me a hug. "I'm so very happy for you, Edward. I think Bella is good for you."

I was feeling elated by my talk with mom. It was nice to hear her give me not only her approval of Bella, but to also curb my anxiety over Bella's departure back home. I supposed that now I would have to find a good opportunity in the next few days to seriously talk to her about where our relationship might be heading and what we plan to do about it. Somehow, I couldn't fathom the chance that Bella would just want to give up our connection when she left. Surely, she would at least see the promise of a long distance relationship. I knew that it might be hard to work that out, but I would certainly visit her at any possible opportunity that I have.

I could hear the others begin to move around in the living room, so I walked back in there. Everyone but Bella was waking up. I decided to wake her up myself. With a smile I got down on the floor in front of where she was sleeping. At first I just caressed her face with my fingertips. I watched as she moved her head into my hand but did not actually wake up. I leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. I could feel her begin to awake beneath me, and continued kissing her. Eventually, Bella became alert enough to thread her fingers through my hair and gave a light moan. It was all I could do to pull away from her at this point, but I needed to or we would both be separated by force at some point.

"Time to wake up," I whispered to her after pulling away.

"Mmm, that was a very nice way to wake up," she responded with a smile lighting up her face as her eyes gazed into mine.

"Why don't you go up to my room to shower, and breakfast will be ready by the time you get back down here?"

"That sounds like a plan," Bella replied getting up and making her way upstairs to my room.

The rest of the group had already dispersed. I imagine most of them were showering and getting ready for the day as well. I wandered back into the kitchen for the time being to help my mother get everything ready for our guests.

"Everyone waking up?" Esme asked.

"Yes, I think most of them are taking showers and getting dressed right now."

"Good," she said. "You can help me by setting the table for everyone."

By the time I was done setting the table, everyone was beginning to trail into the kitchen. Bella made her appearance shortly after and helped put all of the food on the table. My mother had gone all out on breakfast this morning. She decided to have a wide spread of breakfast items that included eggs, bacon, hash browns, grits, pancakes, sausage, toast, along with some homemade jams.

"Wow mom, you really outdid yourself," Emmett said sitting down at the table.

"I thought it would be nice for your guests to try a variety of items," Esme replied.

"What's this?" Alice asked pointing to the grits on the table.

"Those are called grits," Esme answered. "They're made from corn. It might not look like much, but you should try them. You might end up liking them."

"Okay," Alice said with some hesitation in her voice, but dishing herself out a small spoonful of the grits to try along with the other food present on the table.

"Alice, I was thinking that if you wan to, we could go by the store after breakfast for you to look around and possibly get acquainted with the premises."

"I would love that," Alice said enthusiastically. "Thank you, Esme."

"You are very welcome, dear," Esme responded graciously. "Now help yourselves."

With that said, everyone helped themselves to a little bit of everything that was piled on the table. It was definitely one of the best breakfasts I've had in a while. By the time we were done eating, all of the dishes had been cleaned of the food they once contained.

Since mom was upstairs getting ready for the day, I began picking up the dirty dishes and took them into the kitchen so I could help her by washing them. I started the hot water in the sink when Bella came in with another stack of dishes.

"Need any help?" she asked.

"Not really, I was just planning on rinsing these off and putting them in the dishwasher so it can do the real work," I responded.

"Well, in that case I suppose I'll just give you the company," Bella said.

We chatted aimlessly for a bit while I rinsed all of the dishes and placed them into the dishwasher. Neither one of us stayed on any particular topic for any length of time. It was more casual chatter on various subjects. At one point, Bella told me a bit about the city of Forks where she grew up. I learned about how it was a very small town with little to do and a whole lot of rain. I was contemplating the thought of visiting her there sometime when Alice and Rosalie entered the kitchen.

"Okay guys, I'm heading out with your mother, but the rest of you need to go to Walmart so Rose can pick out her outfit for tonight," Alice stated.

"Where are we going tonight?" Bella asked.

"I found this karaoke bar that will be fun and a great public place for Rose to wear the outfit," Alice replied.

"Joy," Rosalie said.


	13. Chapter 13

A/N I've had a decent bit of time here lately to work on the story, so hopefully I can keep the updates coming a little more frequently. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It's one of my favorites so far.

* * *

**Bella POV**

After Edward finished the dishes and started the dishwasher, he went upstairs to get ready. I had begun to feel like I was neglecting my time with Angela. She was on this vacation with us, and we have barely even seen each other. I decided to give her a call before Edward got back downstairs and the group of us left on our Walmart outing. I found her number and hit send listening to the line ring in my ear.

"Hello?" a groggy Angela answered.

"Angela, how was last night with Ben?"

I could hear her sitting up in bed now trying to become more alert. "Yesterday as a whole was great. The aquarium he took me to was unlike anything I've ever been to in my life. It was so cool to be able to touch and feed some of the dolphins," she chattered on.

"I'm so glad you've been enjoying yourself," I told her sincerely. "I've been worried that Alice and I haven't been spending as much time with you as we should."

"Oh Bella," Angela sighed. "I could see where you might think that you've been neglecting me or something, but I promise that I don't feel that way at all. Honestly, if it wasn't for Ben being around, I might have more or a problem with it, but I can't help but to want to spend as much time with him as possible."

"That's great, I'm really happy for you Ange."

"Ben has even been talking about moving up to Seattle for that job, which would allow us to keep spending time together. It would still be a long drive from Forks, but I think we could manage it."

"That's really great," I told her trying to sound as happy for her as possible. Really, the thought of them having such a wonderful relationship and being able to live so close together was something I was jealous of. Being with Edward feels so perfect that I don't want it to end, but when this vacation is over, I'll be heading back to Washington and he'll still be here doing his residency. If only things could somehow work out for us.

I shook myself out of my reverie. "Do you want to meet us by the pools later?" I asked.

"Sure, we'll be down there later today," Angela replied.

"See you then," I said and ended the call.

It was perfect timing because Edward made his way downstairs by the end of my call, so all of us, minus Alice, walked out the door and walked toward Emmett's jeep.

We arrived at Walmart a little while later and entered the store for Rosalie to begin work on her dare from the previous night. We all followed Rosalie as she headed toward the clothing department. I decided to keep out of way, so I stood beside Edward and observed while Rosalie browsed through the selection of clothing available. I felt that of all people, she would be able to find something at Walmart that actually looked really good on her. Rosalie was about as fashion conscious as Alice was. I'm not sure I even wanted to think of the possibilities that could come from both of them joining forces, particularly if it involved me.

It wasn't long before Rosalie had picked out several items and handed them to Emmett to hold for her, so that she could try them all on at the same time instead of making several trips back and forth to the dressing room. I could understand that logic because I haven't seen a single Walmart employee since I walked in other than the ones at the checkout lines, and those were few and far between.

I think Emmett was getting bored with the process because I watched as he tried to sneak a few pieces of especially horrid looking clothing into the mix for Rosalie to try on.

"Emmett, you better put all of those things back by the time I get to the dressing room," Rosalie warned.

"How did you even see me?" Emmett asked while putting the stuff he had picked up back on the racks where he got it from.

We continued on to the lingerie part of the store, since she also had to buy underwear to go along with the outerwear that she would be wearing tonight. Edward snickered quietly as we watched Emmett find the most revealing pieces of undergarments that Walmart sold and put them in between the clothes he was already holding. Either Rosalie didn't notice him this time, or she just didn't care because she didn't say a word about the additional items.

"I think I'll head over to the book section," Jasper said with a grimace. "I really don't want to know what my sister is wearing as far as underwear goes."

"Hey, I'll head over there with you," Edward offered.

I watched as the two of them headed out of the area as quick as they could. Now, it was down to the three of us.

"I'd rather you not leave, Bella," Rosalie told me, "I would love to have some help picking out the outfit for tonight."

"Sure," I said. "I would be glad to help."

We walked to the dressing room area and waited ten minutes for someone to ever come over there to unlock one of them so it could be used.

"This is one of these reasons I don't shop here," Rosalie complained. "There's never any service. I guess everyone is taking a break at the same time all day long."

I couldn't help but to agree with her on her assessment. Finally, an elderly lady came around and Rosalie asked for a dressing room to be opened up for her to try on all of the clothes.

"Miss, you can't bring in more than five items at a time," the elderly lady said.

"What?" Rosalie asked.

"No more than five items are allowed in the dressing room," she repeated pointing to a sign that was on every single door and wall in the dressing area.

"You have got to be kidding me," Rosalie said.

I could tell that she was getting angrier by the minute, so I tried to help diffuse the situation. I picked through the stuff Emmett had in his arms and grabbed five items and handed them to Rosalie, then I took five more items and asked for a dressing room on the pretense that it was for me. The lady just looked at us, but didn't say anything else as she very slowly unlocked two dressing rooms side by side for the two of us to use.

"Thanks Bella," Rosalie said.

I would wait until Rosalie finished trying on her clothes and then swap what I had with me for what she had already tried. It seemed to take forever, but she finally managed to pick out a cute outfit. It was a dark washed denim mini skirt with a baby doll shirt. The outfit as a whole really accentuated her whole figure in all of the right places. If Emmett could have been standing in the dressing room with us, he would have been drooling. He would just have to wait until later tonight.

Rosalie gathered up all of the clothing that she would be purchasing while I put all of her discarded items back on the racks where we had first picked them up. Then, we walked toward the front of the store hoping to catch Edward and Jasper somewhere along the way.

They met up with at the front of the store and we all got into line to checkout. Of course, it would have been nice if there were a few more people working at the time because every single line held ten or more people who had a shopping cart full of items. Even the self checkout lines, which you would think would be shorter, were full of people, most of which were having trouble using the machine. I don't get irritated that easily, but this whole experience was making me want to say a few choice words before we finally made it out of there with all of Rosalie's purchases.

After making our way back to the jeep, we decided to head to the pool at the hotel in order to wait for Alice to come back from her tour of Esme's store. Edward and Emmett dropped us off at the hotel, and told us they would be back in about an hour after they ran home and changed. Edward gave me a kiss on the cheek before getting back into the vehicle and leaving with Emmett.

I walked to the elevator bank with Rosalie and Jasper where we rode up to the third floor together. After arriving on our floor, we eventually split up going to our rooms along the hallway. I opened the door and found Angela and Ben sitting on the sofa snuggled up together watching the television.

"Hey, long time no see," I said walking into the living room.

"Where's Alice?" Angela asked.

"It turns out that Edward's mother is _the_ Esme Cullen that Alice would be working for, so she's out with Esme right now taking a tour of the place that she might be working at," I responded.

"Cool," Angela replied.

"So, are you guys doing anything this afternoon?" I asked.

"No, we decided to chill today instead of doing the whole tourist scene," Ben answered. "Tonight, I was going to take Angela to dinner though."

I watched as Angela smiled brightly up at Ben. They were so cute together, I thought.

"We were all going to meet up by the pool," I spoke. "Want to come?"

"Sure, when are you guys going down there?" Angela asked.

"I guess I'll head down there as soon as I get changed," I told her.

"Okay, well you get changed, and we'll go to the pool with you," Angela said.

I went into the bedroom and looked through my suitcase for a bathing suit. I groaned in frustration once again because Alice had managed to exchange all of my bathing suits that I packed before we left with others of her choosing. Of course the ones she picked out were far more skimpy than I was used to wearing. Well, it's either wear one of these or go naked I figured. I picked out a pretty blue bikini that looked like it might cover a little more than the rest of them. I tied the top together around my neck and behind my back. Then I tied the bottoms up and prayed that everything would stay covered today.

I found a coverup in my suitcase and put it on before walking out of the bedroom. Angela and Ben were standing by the door waiting for me, so I gathered a bag with sunglasses, sunscreen, a bottle of water, and the much required book and walked out the door behind them. By the time we reached the pool area, everyone was already there waiting for us.

Ben gave Angela a quick kiss before jumping into the pool to toss a ball around with the other guys. I tried to be indiscreet as I took a peek at Edward in the pool. He looked drool-worthy with the water rolling down his chest. I pried my eyes away before being caught observing and saw where Rosalie was sitting by the pool. Angela and I walked over to the lounge chairs to lay down next to Rosalie.

I took off the coverup and laid down on the chair next to Rosalie with Angela on my other side. I was about to dig through my bag to find the sunscreen when I heard Rosalie speak up.

Rosalie glanced over and raised her sunglasses to the top of her head. "Bella, you look hot!"

I flushed with embarrassment. My eyes darted around hoping that nobody had heard her except for Angela. No such luck. Apparently, Rose had spoken loud enough that not only were the guys in the pool all looking my way, but everyone around the whole area seemed to be trying to see who she was talking about.

"Shut up, Rose," I grimaced.

"It's about time you flaunt your body, Bella," Rosalie said.

I looked toward the pool in the direction I had last seen Edward only to find him staring at me. He was too far away for me to really distinguish the expressions running across his face. Maybe I would be able to ask him about that later. I watched as his expression turned into one of anger, which confused me. I don't think I've done anything to make him angry.

"Hey Bella, want me to rub some sunscreen on you?" a guy spoke into my ear.

I cringed away from the closeness and turned to see that the guy was none other than Mike. I turned to look for an escape, but Angela and Rosalie had gotten up at some point and entered the pool with everyone else. I didn't see Edward anywhere but thought that he might have gotten out of the pool and took off in his anger.

"No thanks," I told him, "I can handle putting on sunscreen myself."

Mike looked pointedly at my chest and licked his lips. Gross, I thought. He leaned in closer and I would have tried to scoot over more, but I was already on the edge of the chair and didn't want to fall off.

"I'm sure you can handle anything, but I bet you would love to have some warm hands rub it all over your body for you," continued Mike running his finger down my arm.

"Get your filthy hands off my girl!" a voice rang out from behind us.

Mike jumped up startled by the sound and gave me the opportunity to lean forward a bit to look around and see who had spoken. Edward was standing there rigid with anger written all over his face.

"Who the hell do you think you are?'" Mike questioned angrily.

"I'm Bella's boyfriend," Edward replied in a tone that almost resembled a growl.

Mike's eyes shifted back and forth between me and Edward. It would have been comical to look at if it wasn't for the fury brewing behind Edward's eyes.

"Bella doesn't have a boyfriend," Mike finally said with a smirk. "That's why she called me last night to tell me to come to the karaoke bar tonight to meet her."

"Stupid dare," I muttered remembering Alice pretending to be me on the phone last night with Mike.

Edward stalked up to Mike after being reminded about Alice calling him last night. "You're delusional," he said before giving Mike a hard shove.

Everybody around the area watched as Mike's arms flailed around before he completely lost his balance and fell into the pool behind him fully clothed. I couldn't help the huge grin that spread upon my face watching Mike spit out water in the pool. A shadow fell upon me and I looked up to see Edward looking down at me.

He squatted down so that he would be eye level with me and asked, "Would you like me to put some sunscreen on you?"

I smiled widely before replying, "I would love for you to help me with that."

Edward reached over and grabbed the sunscreen from beside me. I adjusted my chair so that I would be lying flat and rolled over onto my stomach so that he could reach my back. Edward putting sunscreen on me was an amazing feeling. His warm hands would massage it into my skin all over. I had definitely died and gone to heaven.

"You can turn over now," Edward whispered in my ear.

I rolled over and Edward gave me a sweet kiss before continuing to put sunscreen on my legs. After he finished I adjusted the lounge chair again so that I was sitting upright. Edward placed himself in the chair next to me.

"Thanks for saving me from Mike," I told him.

I watched as he grimaced. "I noticed him from the pool looking at you. You look too sexy in that bathing suit for your own good."

Did I just hear him say _sexy_? "Sexy?" I asked. "Are you serious?"

"Very," Edward said simply before giving me a smirk. "Can I continue or will you interrupt again?"

"I'll be good," I replied.

"I didn't know at the time that he the same Mike that Alice called last night pretending to be you. When I saw him act like he was going to walk over to you, I decided to get out of the pool and make sure he left you alone."

"I wondered why you looked angry earlier," I said remembering the look of anger on his face.

"By the time I got out and walked around so that I was behind him, he was already too close to you. Offering to put on sunscreen of all things."

"He is creepy enough that even I could tell that it was a ploy to be able to put his hands on me," I replied with a frown on my face.

"By then I felt that enough was enough and made my presence known," Edward finished.

"I did enjoy him flying into the pool," I said with a giggle.

"You enjoyed that huh?" Edward said with a smirk.

I nodded wondering what was going through that mind of his. Then he shocked me by picking me up bridal style in moves so quick that I almost didn't see it happen.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

He leaned down to give me a kiss and I watched his crooked grin appear. That's when he threw me in the pool.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N Thanks to you who have sent me reviews. I appreciate them. Still don't own Twilight, but I'd be one lucky girl if I did.

* * *

**Bella POV**

Later that evening I was getting ready in our hotel room for the night out at the karaoke bar Alice had planned. I was currently taking a hot shower washing all the chlorine off from today's pool visit. A smile came to my face as I remembered Edward throwing me in the pool. I was outraged at first that he would do that to me, but it was still fun to be picked up and tossed in so effortlessly. Edward must be extremely strong because he made it seem like he was picking up a sack of potatoes instead of a hundred and ten pound girl.

I hopped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around me before padding back into the bedroom. Alice was waiting on me with clothes in her hand.

She had joined us later that day by the pool after she finished looking at everything with Esme. Alice was positively raving about the store and everything she would get to do as part of her job. I'm not sure if she had officially told Esme that she wanted to work at this location, but I'm pretty sure that she will before we leave to go back to Washington.

I was happy for her getting this chance at a job that would lead her in the direction of her dream. Although, I had to admit that I didn't like the idea of not being able to see Alice all the time. As good of a friend as Angela was, Alice was still my best friend and hated the idea of us being separated by such a large distance.

Of course, I could always work on my writing from any location. I wonder how Edward would feel if I decided to stay here. We had a great relationship, but he might think of this as a summer fling. As soon as Alice thought of the idea of dating someone while we're vacationing here, I had thought of it as a summer fling. Being with Edward though, it just didn't feel like a fling to me. It felt right and I hoped that he felt the same way. I pushed those thoughts aside though because Alice had begun to tap her foot impatiently waiting on me to say something.

"Okay, what will I be wearing tonight, Alice?" I asked.

"Glad you finally asked," Alice replied. "I have some dark washed skinny jeans for you with an emerald green baby doll shirt. You know that I would prefer if you wear heels with it, but I'll let you pick out your shoes tonight since you're not arguing too much over the clothes."

"Thank you, Alice," I almost sang to her.

She left the room so I could get dressed for the evening. After putting on the outfit she picked out, I browsed through the shoes I had available to me. I didn't want to wear heels because I'm a walking disaster in those deathtraps on my feet. I pulled out some black ballet flats that would be cute with the outfit and comfortable to walk in.

Alice came barging into the room at that moment with Rosalie. They dragged me back into the bathroom where they began doing my hair and makeup. A few minutes later they finished and stood me up in front of the mirror for me to see what I looked like. They had done a wonderful job on me. The makeup that was applied was light but highlighted features such as my eyes and lips. My hair was perfectly curled and allowed to hang down my back.

"What do you think?" Rosalie asked.

"Wow, I think you guys did a great job," I told them.

"Thanks, now let's get going," Alice said. "We need to meet the guys down by the pool."

Alice looked over at Rosalie who was wearing the outfit she purchased from Walmart. "I still can't believe you found something that would look that good on you from Walmart," she said with a shake of her head.

Rosalie shrugged, "It wasn't easy, but at least I'm fulfilling the dare."

We walked out of the hotel room with Jasper who had been waiting in the living room for us to finish getting ready. Alice linked her arm through Jasper's on the way down to the pool. I faintly wondered what the two of them were planning on doing when the vacation was over.

We arrived at the pool to see a waiting Edward and Emmett. Rosalie rushed forward to Emmett and he picked her up and swung her around while somehow maintaining a passionate kiss. I looked over at Edward, who was looking as gorgeous as ever. He had on some black pants with an emerald green button down shirt which he had rolled the sleeves up to his elbows on. I looked at his shirt and then at my dress and realized that Alice had matched us perfectly.

Edward walked over and gave me a chaste kiss before holding my arms out to the sides. "You look beautiful," he said.

"She made us match," I said with a smile.

"When I arrived back home, I saw the clothes laid out on my bed with a note attached saying to wear it tonight," Edward explained. "I guess somewhere along the way this morning, Alice went shopping and left it there before coming to the pool."

"So will we all fit in one vehicle?" I asked.

"Well, even if we could," Edward began, "I drove my car that way we could leave at any time we choose tonight."

"Brilliant thinking."

Edward placed a hand on the small of my back and ushered me toward where his silver Volvo was parked. Rosalie was already in Emmett's jeep, and Jasper and Alice were riding together in Jasper's rental car. Edward helped me into the passenger seat and closed the door before walking around to the driver's side and getting in.

Soon, we were on the way to the karaoke bar that Alice found. I wasn't really a big fan of karaoke, but I always tried to have fun at those kinds of places. I figured that being surrounded by so many friends and someone I love would mean that tonight might be even better than usual.

Once we arrived a few minutes later, Alice practically bounced through the door of the place. She immediately went up and put our names down to sing tonight while Jasper found a table that would accommodate all of us. The guys went to buy some drinks for all of us while we sat down.

When they arrived back to the table with our drinks, Rosalie's name was called to come up to the stage. Rosalie walked onto the stage like she owned it and waited for her song to start playing. The rest of us waited expectantly with the crowd in the bar to see how she would do. I heard the first familiar beats of "Barracuda" by Heart being played.

So this ain't the end -  
I saw you again today  
I had to turn my heart away  
Smiled like the sun -  
Kisses for real  
And tales - it never fails!

You lying so low in the weeds  
I bet you gonna ambush me  
You'd have me down down down down on my knees  
Now wouldn't you, barracuda?

Back over time we were all  
Trying for free  
You met the porpoise and me  
No right no wrong, selling a song-  
A name, whisper game.

If the real thing don't do the trick  
You better make up something quick  
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick  
Ooooooh, barracuda?

Sell me sell you the porpoise said  
Dive down deep down to save my head  
You...I think you got the blues too.

All that night and all the next  
Swam without looking back  
Made for the western pools - silly fools!

If the real thing don't do the trick  
No, you better make up something quick  
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick  
Ooooooohhhh, barra barracuda.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.

Rosalie finished the song to hoots and hollers from everyone in the crowd.

"Wow, my Rose can sing," Emmett boasted. "And she didn't even go for some stupid pop song."

Rosalie came back to the table just as they called Alice's name. We all cheered as she went up to the stage and told the guy what she wanted to sing.

"Another classic song," Jasper said as the beginning of "Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks began. "At least you girls have good tastes."

Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Whoo... whoo... whoo...  
Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

We watched as Alice did that weird arm flapping thing that Stevie Nicks did during the song.

"What's up with the arm flapping?" Emmett asked.

"I don't know," I replied. "Stevie Nicks always did that."

And the days go by...  
Like a strand in the wind...  
In the web that is my own...  
I begin again  
Said to my friend, baby...  
Nothin' else mattered

He was no more... than a baby then  
Well he... seemed broken hearted...  
Something within him  
But the moment... that I first laid...  
Eyes... on... him... all alone...  
On the edge of... seventeen

Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
ooo baby... ooo... said ooo...  
Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

I went today... maybe I will go again...  
Tomorrow  
And the music there it was hauntingly...  
Familiar  
And I see you doing...  
What I try to do for me  
With the words from a poet...  
And the voice from a choir  
And a melody... nothing else mattered

Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
ooo baby... ooo... said ooo  
Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

The clouds... never expect it...  
When it rains  
But the sea changes colours...  
But the sea...  
Does not change  
And so... with the slow... graceful flow...  
Of age  
I went forth... with an age old...  
Desire... to please  
On the edge of... seventeen

Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo  
Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

Well then suddenly...  
There was no one... left standing  
In the hall... yeah yeah...  
In a flood of tears  
That no one really ever heard fall at all  
Oh I went searchin' for an answer...  
Up the stairs... and down the hall  
Not to find an answer...  
Just to hear the call  
Of a nightbird... singing...  
Come away... come away...

Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo... baby ooo... said ooo  
Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo... baby ooo... said ooo

Well I hear you in the morning...  
And I hear you...  
At nightfall...  
Sometime to be near you...  
Is to be unable... to hear you...  
My love...  
I'm a few years older than you...

Just like the white winged dove...  
Sings a song...  
Sounds like she's singing...  
Ooo baby... ooo... said ooo

The crowd once again cheered for Alice when the song was over. She bounced back over to our table with a big smile on her face.

"You were great, baby," Jasper said giving her a kiss.

"Thanks," Alice replied. She turned to look at me," Okay, when Mike comes in, you and Rose are going on stage to sing a song that I picked out for the occasion."

I groaned, "Can't I pick my own songs out? And who says that Mike will even show up after Edward shoved him into the pool earlier today?"

"It was necessary to calm myself," Edward replied defensively.

"Hey, I'm still glad you did it," I offered. "Mike needed to cool off anyway."

"Don't worry, Bella," Alice began, "Mike is gullible enough to come tonight regardless of what happened this afternoon."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "So what song do I have to sing?"

"It's a surprise," Alice said with an evil glint in her eye.

"Hey babe," Emmett said to Rosalie, "let's go sing a song together."

"Sure," Rosalie said getting up to walk back up to the stage with Emmett.

I wondered what kind of song Emmett would pick out. I think he would go for something more recent. I saw him tell the guy what song he wanted, which Rosalie heard and gave a slight shake of her head. Emmett just wiggled his eyebrows at her with a huge smile on his face. This was going to be interesting. The dance beat of the song I didn't recognize at first, but Alice leaned over and told me that they were singing "Good Girls Go Bad" by Cobra Starship. Emmet started singing first.

I make them good girls go  
I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go  
I make them good girls go  
Good girls so bad  
Good girls go bad

I know your type  
(Your type)  
You're daddy's little girl  
Just take a bite  
(One bite)  
Let me shake up your world  
'Cause just one night couldn't be so wrong  
I'm gonna make you lose control

She was so shy  
Till I drove her wild

I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go bad  
You were hanging in the corner  
With your five best friends  
You heard that I was trouble  
But you couldn't resist  
I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go  
Good girls go bad

After the chorus was complete, Rosalie began singing the next verse of the song. They were both up there on stage dancing to the beat of the music. I think they were made for each other. She was the only person out of all of us that was able to keep Emmett in line at all times. He would do anything for her.

I know your type  
(Your type)  
Boy, you're dangerous  
Yeah, you're that guy  
(That guy)  
I'd be stupid to trust  
But just one night couldn't be so wrong  
You make me wanna lose control

Emmett started singing again after Rosalie finished the verse. I had noticed that the chorus talked about being in a corner with five best friends. Ironically enough, all of us were seated at a table in a corner of the bar. I was surrounded by five people that were definitely growing into becoming best friends of mine. Everyone had their own personalities, but we all just seemed to click well together.

She was so shy  
Till I drove her wild

I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go bad

Rosalie began singing again while dancing around stage with Emmett.

I was hanging in the corner  
With my five best friends  
I heard that you were trouble  
But I couldn't resist

Emmett cut in at this point with pieces of the chorus.

I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go  
Good girls go bad  
Bad bad  
Good girls go bad  
Bad bad  
Good girls go bad

Emmett began singing at a faster pace and started doing hand movements like a rapper would do.

Oh, she got away with the boys in the place  
Treat 'em like they don't stand a chance

Rosalie sang again and began doing the same hand movements that Emmett was doing much to my surprise.

And he got away with the girls in the back  
Acting like they're too hot to dance

Emmett seemed to be alternating verses with Rosalie according to the lyrics in the music.

Yeah, she got away with the boys in the place  
Treat 'em like they don't stand a chance

Rosalie had the brightest smile I had ever seen on her face as she sang.

And he got away with the girls in the back  
Acting like they're too hot to dance

Both of them joined in together singing at this point.

I make them good girls go bad  
(They don't stand a chance)  
I make them good girls go  
make them good girls go  
The good girls go bad, yeah  
Good girls go bad

Rosalie started singing the chorus again and pointed her finger toward the table where the rest of us were sitting as she sang.

I was hanging in the corner  
With my five best friends  
I thought that you were trouble  
But I couldn't resist

Emmett completed the rest of the chorus for Rosalie. He was funny up there trying to dance to the beat of the song and pretend to be a rapper even though the song wasn't exactly something you would ever catch a rapper singing.

I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go bad  
I make them good girls go  
Good girls go bad  
Bad bad bad  
Good girls go bad  
Bad bad bad  
Good girls go

I put my fingers in my mouth and whistled as they finished the song and took a bow on stage. Everyone was clapping, whistling, and yelling loudly in praise of their performance. I guess it was the best they had seen tonight.

Alice grabbed my arm and jerked her head in the direction of the door. I couldn't believe it, but Mike had actually turned up tonight at the bar. Edward saw where we were looking and a scowl came to his face. He really didn't like Mike, not that I would blame him.

Rosalie had just reached the table when Alice asked, "You don't mind going on stage with Bella for one more song do you?"

Rosalie followed our gaze to see Mike and smirked down at me, "Not at all."

I got up and walked toward the stage with Rosalie trailing behind. I wasn't sure what Alice had planned, but I'm pretty sure that Rosalie knew all about it. Rosalie walked up to the DJ and told him to play "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry.

"Oh God," I said remembering why Alice might have chosen that song. "Are you singing with me?" I asked Rosalie.

"No, I'm here to make the performance better," she said grinning evilly. "Don't worry about a thing, Bella, just go with the flow."

"Easy for you to say," I grumbled.

The music began playing and I waited for the lyrics to scroll up on the screen in front of me. I knew the song fairly well, but I didn't want to make a fool of myself on stage. After all, Edward was watching me from our table. As soon as the first lines of the song appeared, I began singing.

This was never the way I planned, not my intention  
I got so brave, drink in hand, lost my discretion  
It's not what I'm used to, just wanna try you on  
I'm curious for you caught my attention

I kissed a girl and I liked it  
The taste of her cherry chapstick

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Rosalie making an obvious display of putting chapstick on her lips.

I kissed a girl just to try it  
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong, it felt so right  
Don't mean I'm in love tonight  
I kissed a girl and I liked it  
I liked it

I began getting more comfortable being on stage, and my performance probably showed it. I was swaying my hips to the beat, and decided that for Mike's benefit I would throw seductive smiles in Rosalie's direction. I made sure to glance around the room to find Mike on occasion. Every time I saw him, his mouth was open as if he was trying to catch flies. I think there might have been a puddle of drool by his feet.

No, I don't even know your name, it doesn't matter  
You're my experimental game, just human nature  
It's not what good girls do, not how they should behave  
My head gets so confused, hard to obey

I kissed a girl and I liked it  
The taste of her cherry chapstick  
I kissed a girl just to try it  
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong, it felt so right  
Don't mean I'm in love tonight  
I kissed a girl and I liked it  
I liked it

Us girls we are so magical  
Soft skin, red lips, so kissable  
Hard to resist, so touchable  
Too good to deny it  
It ain't no big deal, it's innocent

I kissed a girl and I liked it  
The taste of her cherry chapstick  
I kissed a girl just to try it  
I hope my boyfriend don't mind it

It felt so wrong, it felt so right  
Don't mean I'm in love tonight  
I kissed a girl and I liked it  
I liked it

As soon as I finished the last bit of the song, Rosalie swooped over and kissed me right on the lips. I was too shocked to do anything but stand there. When she backed away, I gave her a shocked look and we walked off the stage toward the table we were sitting at.

"Did you get a look at Mike?" Rosalie asked me.

"No, where did he go?"

She just pointed toward the floor. Where Mike had once been standing watching the performance, he had apparently fainted at some point and was now laying on the floor.

"Wow," was all I could say.

When we arrived back at the table, everyone was cheering for our performance on stage. Edward looked a little dazed, however. I sat down next to him and asked, "Edward, are you okay?"

I watched him closely as he shook his head slightly before turning to look me directly in the eye. His eyes seemed to be smoldering. The next thing I knew, his lips were crashing into mine in front of everyone at our table.

We broke apart to cheers around the table. I looked away embarrassed, but Edward just had a smug look on his face.

"Not that I'm complaining," I said to Edward, "but what was that for?"  
"You and Rosalie kissing was hot," he said somewhat shyly. I'm pretty sure that he might have had a tinge of pink on his cheeks.

"Guys, it's time for us to go up there," Jasper said.

"What are you singing?" I asked.

"You'll see," Edward replied with a wink.

All three of the guys went on the stage and waited for their song to begin playing. Alice, Rosalie, and I were all facing the stage waiting to see what they were planning to do. We laughed as we heard them start playing "Macho Man" by The Village People. The guys began dancing and alternating their singing to the music.

Body...wanna feel my body?  
Body...such a thrill my body  
Body...wanna touch my body?  
Body...it's too much my body  
Check it out my body, body.  
Don't you doubt my body, body.  
talkin' bout my body, body,  
check it out my body

Every man wants to be a macho macho man  
to have the kind of body, always in demand  
Jogging in the mornings, go man go  
works out in the health spa, muscles glow  
You can best believe that, he's a macho man  
ready to get down with, anyone he can

Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!  
Macho, macho man (macho man)  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho! Ow....

Macho, macho man  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man (yeah, yeah)  
I've got to be a macho!

Body, its so hot, my body,  
Body, love to pop my body,  
Body, love to please my body,  
Body, don't you tease my body,  
Body, you'll adore my body,  
Body, come explore my body,  
Body, made by God, my body,  
Body, it's so good, my body

You can tell a macho, he has a funky walk  
his western shirts and leather, always look so boss  
Funky with his body, he's a king  
call him Mister Eagle, dig his chains  
You can best believe that, he's a macho man  
likes to be the leader, he never dresses grand

Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho! (all right)

Macho, macho man (yeah, yeah)  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho! All Right!

Ugh! Macho..baby!  
Body, body, body wanna feel my body,  
Body, body, body gonna thrill my body,  
Body, body, body don'tcha stop my body,  
Body, body, body it's so hot my body,

Every man ought to be a macho macho man,  
To live a life of freedom, machos make a stand,  
Have their own life style and ideals,  
Possess the strength and confidence, life's a steal,  
You can best believe that he's a macho man  
He's a special person in anybody's land.

Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!  
Macho, macho man (macho man)  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho! (dig the hair on my chest)

Macho, macho man (see my big thick mustache)  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho! (Dig broad shoulders)

Macho, macho man (dig my muscles!)  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho!

Macho, macho man  
I've got to be, a macho man  
Macho, macho man  
I've got to be a macho! HEY!

Toward the end of the song, the guys started gyrating to the music. That just caused all of us to start whistling and cheering them on. I don't know when they had time to put that together, but they were three good looking guys standing up there. I was glad that I could say one of them was mine.

They came back to our table and we all enjoyed one last round of drinks before heading out.

"So when did you guys plan that out?" I asked Edward as we walked to his car.

"After we left the pool this afternoon, Emmett decided it would be fun to do that. I called Jasper and luckily for us, he knew the song and decided to join in with the fun tonight."

"Everyone looked really good up there," I said with a smile.

"And did someone look better than the rest?" Edward asked in a teasing manner.

I pretended to think about that before saying, "Definitely Emmett."

Edward laughed and ruffled my hair. "So what would you like to do tomorrow?"

"Anything you want," I told him.

"Well, in that case I'm going to monopolize your time tomorrow with me."

"What are we doing?"

Edward smiled his famous crooked grin. "It's a surprise. Just dress comfortably and wear your bathing suit. You can even bring your laptop if you want to do some writing."

I smiled, "Okay, so will you at least tell me what time I should be ready?"

"How does nine o'clock sound to you?"

"I guess I'll be up at nine then," I replied smiling.  
Edward gave me a quick kiss before opening the passenger door of his car to let me in. I got into the car and waited as he briskly walked to the driver's side of the car and hopped in next to me.

"So do you have any hobbies?" I asked.

Edward glance over but thankfully kept his eyes on the road for the most part. "I like to cook. Emmett thinks it's stupid that I fool around in the kitchen. I believe his words were 'that job is for women'."

"Pig," I muttered even though I knew he was really a giant teddy bear who would do anything for you in a time of need. "I bet Rose will straighten him out."

Edward smirked, "You have no idea how much she's already done to help fix him."

"So what kinds of food do you cook?"

"I don't really do much that involves baking," Edward replied. "I prefer things that I can keep a constant watch on. I'll make Italian dishes and use the grill. That kind of thing."

"You ought to cook for me sometime," I told him.

Edward gave me that crooked smile I loved so much. "Don't worry, I'll definitely make you a meal sometime soon."

"So why don't you tell me something about yourself that I don't know?" Edward asked.

I thought about what I could tell him. "Well, I'm not sure how much you don't already know about me because I'm a fairly simplistic person. I love reading the classics, prefer strawberry ice cream, and I'm a horrible pet owner."

"Horrible pet owner?" Edward asked with a smile.

I nodded my head, "I killed all of my goldfish, and have decided that I should never own another pet."

I somehow managed to keep a straight face throughout that explanation and it paid off. Edward laughed harder than I had head him laugh so far. It was a wonder to see his face light up with joy like that, and I hoped that I would be able to see it countless times again.

We continued on with our friendly banter until we arrived back at the hotel. Edward pulled into the parking lot and came around to help me out of his car. He decided to walk me to the hotel room where I was staying. The whole way there, his hand lingered on the small of my back and I could feel the electricity between us growing.

Once we reached the door to my hotel room, I opened it after swiping the card in the lock. I turned to face Edward. I didn't want to say goodnight to him and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he didn't want to either.

"Would you like to come in?" I asked shyly.

Edward smiled and replied, "I would love to."

I stepped aside allowing him entry into our room. He looked around quickly taking in the details of where we had been staying the past few days. I decided that tonight might be a nice night to step out onto the balcony that overlooked the pool area. I walked in that direction and knew that Edward was following behind me even though I couldn't actually hear his movements.

I opened the door to the balcony and walked to the railing looking out at the scenery before my eyes. I felt Edward come up behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my cheek before allowing his chin to rest on top of my head.

The view before us was beautiful. I thought that the pool area was nice to look at during the day, but nighttime was even better. There were thousands of stars twinkling down from the cloudless sky along with one of the brightest moons I have ever seen. The pools were giving off a blue glow that surrounded the immediate area. It seemed romantic to me and I was thankful that Edward was standing behind me at this moment to experience it with me.

"What are you thinking?" he asked softly in my ear.

"I was thinking of how thankful I am that you're here with me right now," I answered in that same soft voice. The tranquility of of our environment deemed that we shouldn't speak loudly.

"I love you," Edward said.

My heart filled up so full of joy that I thought it might burst. I turned around so that I was facing him before responding, "I love you, too."

Our lips met once again. This kiss was slow and filled with the love that poured out from both of us. Edward gave me three more soft, chaste kisses before breaking away.

"I really should go," he said. "You do need your sleep after all."

I sighed, "I really hate to see you leave, but you're right."

"Don't worry, love," Edward replied with a smile. "I'll be here tomorrow morning to pick you up for our day out."

"I can't wait," I said grinning back.

"Goodnight," Edward said before walking to the door.

"Goodnight, Edward," I answered before closing the door.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N Hope you guys enjoy and please keep sending me reviews. Unfortunately, I still do not own Twilight *sigh*.

* * *

**Day 5**

**Bella POV**

I woke up to the sun shining in my eyes. Alice was already up and had opened up the curtains in our room. I groaned and rolled away from the sunlight hoping for sleep to take me again. After a few minutes of just laying there with my eyes closed, I realized that I was up whether I liked it or not.

I crawled out of the bed and walked into the living area of our room. I saw Alice and Angela sitting outside on the balcony. I smiled as I remembered last night with Edward standing behind me on the balcony. Having his body so close brought out new feelings and desires that I had never felt before. It wasn't something that I was willing to act on anytime soon, but they were there nonetheless.

I walked out to the balcony and said, "Good morning."

Alice cheerfully chirped, "Good morning." I still don't know how she can be so awake every morning even after only having a few hours of sleep.

"Morning," Angela said and then yawned. At least some of us were normal, I thought.

"What are you guys doing today?" I asked.

"Ben's leaving tomorrow, so we were going to spend today together," Angela said sadly.

"Did you guys make plans to see each other again?" I asked out of curiosity. They had seemed to be getting really close.

Angela smiled, "Ben's taking the job in Seattle. He's heading home for a couple days to get things packed up and ready for the move. Then, he's going to try to find a place to live up there. We're planning to meet up once he finds a place to stay. Maybe I'll even help him get his place ready."

"That's really great," Alice said. "I'm happy for you."

"I'm glad it's worked out so well," Angela said. "I'm just really going to miss him until I get the chance to see him again."

"Hopefully time will fly by until that time arrives," I told her sincerely.

"What are your plans for today?" Angela asked me.

"Edward's coming by around nine o'clock to pick me up," I replied. "I'm not sure what we're doing though. He was quite secretive."

Alice just about squealed with excitement over this. "We have to find you something to wear!"

I held my hand up palm facing her. "Now hold on, Alice. Edward told me to dress comfortably and to wear a bathing suit. Although, I'm supposed to also bring my laptop, so I'm not sure how that plays into it all." I couldn't imagine bringing my laptop by the pool or on the beach. That's just asked for trouble. I might drop the laptop into the water or get sand into it. Hopefully Edward knew what he was doing.

"Have you seen the time?" Alice screeched after looking at her phone.

I just shook my head. I was still sleepy, and only a hot shower would be able to help cure the drowsiness.

"It's almost eight!" Alice practically yelled. "Go get in the shower. I'll pick out your clothes."

"Alice," I said in warning. I really didn't want her picking out something that I would be uncomfortable in just because it would look good on me.

"Trust me, I'll pick something out you'll like," Alice said as she shoved me into the bathroom. That girl might be small but she was definitely stronger than you would expect based on her size.

I showered pretty quick for me. I didn't have a whole lot of time before Edward arrived, and I wasn't the type of girl to keep a guy waiting. I much prefer to be ready when he gets here is at all possible.

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around me before walking into the bedroom. Luckily, Alice didn't go too crazy this morning picking out clothes for me to wear. I had a pair of khaki shorts with a blue tank top laid on the bed. This was in addition to the bathing suit.

I sighed as I looked at the bathing suit, well I suppose you could call it a bathing suit. It just looked like a few flimsy pieces of fabric to me. I would have yelled at Alice about the lack of coverage that it offered, but I heard a knock on the door outside.

I knew it had to be Edward, and could hear his velvety voice from where I was standing in the bedroom. Alice came and knocked on the outside of the door.

"Bella, hurry up," she said through the door, "Edward's here for you."

I took one last look at the bikini that was in front of me before putting it on. I didn't want to look in the mirror to see how awful I probably looked in the scraps of fabric. I just ignored the temptation and continued putting the shirt and shorts on over it. I slipped on the pair of flip flops that Alice picked out and opened the door to walk out.

I almost stopped in my tracks. Edward looked like the picture of perfection in some khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt. His hair was in going in every direction as if his hands had been running through it endlessly. I saved his face for last. His emerald eyes dazzled me as they looked at me. They seemed so full of love. I could lose myself in his eyes.

"Good morning," Edward said. "Are you almost ready?"

"Almost," I told him. "Let me just my stuff together real quick."

"You don't have to hurry," Edward replied. "We don't really have a time frame for today."

I nodded and went around putting everything I might need for the day in my bag. I had just packed up my laptop when I heard Edward laugh behind me.

"What is it?" I asked.

He pointed to me and then back at him. "We match," he said with a grin.

I hadn't realized it until he said something, but both of us were wearing khaki shorts and a blue shirt. I laughed along with him. I bet Alice picked this outfit out for a reason. She has always had an uncanny ability to predict things.

After getting everything packed and looking around a second time to make sure I had everything, I turned around to Edward and said, "Okay, I'm ready."

Edward grabbed both of my bags from me and ushered me out the door. I heard Angela call out, "Have fun, you guys." The door was closing as Alice said, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" I rolled my eyes at that one. There probably wasn't much that she _wouldn't_ do.

"So will you tell me what we're doing today?" I asked Edward.

Edward smirked. "I'll tell you that our first stop is home."

"Home?" I questioned. I couldn't figure out why we would need to go to Edward's house.

"You'll see," he replied simply.

It wasn't long before we were pulling up to his home. I was still enthralled by the sight of it. My home back in Forks was so tiny in comparison. Even though this house was so much grander than what I was used to, I could still see myself living here.

Edward grabbed the bags from the back seat and carried them inside with me trailing behind him. I was still looking all around me at the beauty of the house. I finally realized that it was quiet here.

"Where is everybody?" I asked.

"Mom and dad are at work and Emmett took Rosalie out to a car show that was in town," Edward answered.

"So will you tell me now why we're here?"

"Well, I knew that you had brought your laptop with you on your vacation so that you could work on your story. I didn't think that you had really had the opportunity to actually work on it though, so far. I was thinking that you might like some time to work on your writing, and I could maybe play for you," Edward explained.

I couldn't believe how thoughtful he was. Even my best friends hadn't considered giving me some free time to work on my story. I rushed over to him and hugged him with all my might.

"Thank you!" I told Edward, who was still surprised by my reaction.

"Anything for you, Bella," Edward replied.

He led me into the room that housed his piano. I remembered seeing it the first night I was here, but had never had the opportunity to hear Edward play it. I was really looking forward to it.

I picked out a nice chair that looked really comfortable to sit in and pulled out my laptop. I powered on the laptop but decided that I wouldn't actually start doing any work until after Edward had played at least one song on the piano.

Edward watched for a minute as I got myself settled, then went over to his piano and sat down. He turned to me and asked, "What would you like me to play?"

I smiled and answered, "Anything you want to play. Surprise me."

Edward smiled before turned around to face the piano. He seemed to ponder for a second over what to play before placing his fingers on the keys.

The music that came out of the piano made my mouth fall open. I never would have guessed that Edward was so talented. I didn't recognize the song he was playing, but it was really quite beautiful. I sat back and enjoyed watching him play.

When he finished the piece, he turned toward me and asked, "How did you like it?"

"Edward, that was amazing!" I said. "Why didn't you tell me you could play the piano so well?"

"It never came up," he replied with a smile. "I'm glad you liked it."

"What was the song you played?" I asked. "I didn't recognize it; although, my area of expertise in classical music is lacking."

"I was playing 'Liebestraum Nocturno No. 3' in A flat major by Liszt," Edward answered.

"I'm not familiar with that one," I told him.

"Hmm... You might recognize this then," Edward said before beginning to play "Ode to Joy" by Beethoven.

"Wow, you really play beautifully," I said with amazement clear in my voice. "Will you continue playing? I would really like to continue listening to you play."

"I'll play for as long as you want," Edward responded with a smile on his face.

I made myself comfortable and began looking at my story as I listened to him play. He started off playing music that would be familiar to me and then morphed it into other unfamiliar songs.

His playing became background music to me as I focused on my writing. The editors I work with had told me that I needed to work on the love story aspect in my book. I could see where they were coming from because I try to write based on my experiences, and at the time that was something that I really hadn't had any experience with. Now, on the other hand, I might could come up with something. Thoughts of Edward and his actions around me went through my head. I decided to use some of that to help create the love story surrounding my leading characters.

I began typing and soon lost myself in the story. I still heard the piano music in the background, but my sole focus was on what I was writing. I was weaving some of the things that Edward had done around me into the tale. The story itself was about a forbidden love between the two main characters. I wanted it to have a Romeo and Juliet feel to it without the tragedy at the end. In order to create more suspense within the story, I tried to come up with as many obstacles as I could create that would befall the couple.

I was soon interrupted out of my reverie. "Bella?" I think that velvety voice could break through any of my preoccupations.

I looked up to find Edward no longer sitting at the piano, but standing against the doorway. "Yes?" I asked.

"I really didn't want to interrupt your work," Edward began, "but we should get going if we want to have lunch."

"What time is it anyway?" I asked.

"It's almost twelve," he replied.

"I can't believe I lost almost three hours," I said surprised.

"I actually called your name several times before you even looked up," Edward said smiling. "You were unbelievably focused."

"It happens sometimes," I said. "Okay, where to?"

"I thought a picnic might be nice for such a nice day," Edward replied. "I already have the picnic basket and everything else we might need packed in the car. All I'm missing now is you."

"Oh, you could have gotten my attention earlier," I said frowning slightly. "I would have helped you get everything ready."

"This is my treat to you, so I wouldn't have you do a thing."

I powered down the laptop and packed it back up in the bag I brought it in. Then, I stood up and grabbed my things around me and walked toward Edward, who was still standing in the doorway observing me.

Edward took the bags from me once again and ushered me through the front door to his car that was waiting for us. After placing the bags in the car, Edward got in the driver's seat and we drove back out of the driveway. I settled back and waited to see where we might be heading since all he told me was that we were going on a picnic.

Edward turned in the direction of the beach and drove along that highway for a little while. Our conversation was minimal, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable whatsoever. I mainly took the time to gaze out of the window at the beaches we were passing and the rolling waves coming in from the ocean. The sky was nearly cloudless and sunny. All of the blue from the sky and ocean was great to look at along with the white sand. I could probably count the number of times I've seen a cloudless sky in Forks on one hand. This was such a change from the environment I was used to living in and I relished the warmth and beauty of it. I could really see myself living in a place like this.

I felt the car slowing and I watched as Edward pulled off onto a road that was clearly not used very often. It was a very small one lane dirt road that would definitely get a car stuck if it had rained recently. There were trees on either side of it closing it off from public view. I looked to Edward and was about to ask where we were going, but he must have interpreted my face because he just smirked at me and pretended to zip his lips closed.

Since I wasn't going to get any answers from him, I just turned forward and waited as patiently as I was capable of doing at the moment. The road seemed to go on forever just winding around the wooded area. Just as I had decided that we would never get to wherever it was that we were going, the trees began thinning out and I could see the sky again peeking through. We drove another minute along the road, and I felt my mouth drop open.

Before us was a small beach that was completely unoccupied. I looked to Edward, "Is this yours?"

"The beach belongs to some family friends of ours, who happen to be out of town right now. The let us come over here anytime though so we can get away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist areas around town."

I got out of the car before Edward could come around and open the door for me. I was still in shock at being taken to a private beach. The two of us could be completely isolated from the rest of the world here. It was a nice thought.

Edward grabbed the picnic basket and a large beach towel from the car while I grabbed my bag that had anything and everything I could possibly need for today. I ambled over to where he had finished spreading out the beach towel.

"Do you need any help with anything?" I asked.

"No, just make yourself comfortable over here on the towel," Edward answered.

I sat down beside Edward on the beach towel and watched as he opened up the picnic basket. He began by pulling out a bowl of cut up mixed fruits such as grapes, strawberries, bananas, honeydew, and kiwi. Next, he brought out a container full of rotisserie chicken salad that immediately made my mouth water. Edward lifted out what was clearly some freshly made bread that had already been sliced. I was wondering how much food he had packed into the picnic basket. Finally, I watched him pull some brownies out of the basket. I hoped that drool wasn't escaping my mouth at this point because the food looked heavenly and I was starving.

I was wondering if he had thought to pack any utensils because I hated the thought of how messy it might be for me to try to eat some of this food without a spoon or something when Edward, who must be a perfectionist, took out two plates and utensils for everything that we would need. He also put a bottle of water in front of both of us as our beverage with the meal. I was completely flabbergasted.

"Edward, you really shouldn't have gone to all this trouble," I told him. "I would have been a happy camper with a simple sandwich."

"Well, I wanted to make sure you had a nice lunch," Edward said. "Besides, Esme did most of the preparation involved for it."

"She shouldn't have gone to all that trouble," I said with a hint of disapproval.

"I tried to help her, but she just kicked me out of the kitchen," Edward said. "She really likes you."

I smiled because I was growing quite fond of both of Edward's parents as well. "I'll just have to thank her in person the next time I see her."

We each ate a little of everything saving the dessert for last. The food was just as delicious as I thought it would be. I was about to grab one of brownies to try when Edward stopped me.

"Allow me," he said. He picked out a brownie and broke off a small bite-sized piece of it. He then preceded to feed me the dessert, which was one of the best brownies I have ever had. I couldn't say how much that was due to the actual taste of it or just being fed the brownie by Edward. Heavenly would be a good word to describe it. I couldn't let him have all the fun, so I took another brownie and we began feeding each other.

After we were both finished eating, Edward packed everything back up in the picnic basket and set it aside for us to carry back to the car later. I laid back on the beach towel with my arms supporting me. Edward laid down beside me and we were both staring at the ocean.

I was lost in the beauty of the beach in front of me with the waves crashing in every few seconds.

"It's so beautiful that I don't want to leave," I murmured.

Edward looked over to me and seemed like he was unsure about saying something.

"What is it?" I asked looking over at him.

"I don't know if I should bring it up," Edward spoke hesitantly, "it might ruin the mood."

"It's okay, just spit it out," I said softly.

"What are we going to do when you leave?" he asked.

I looked down at the towel for a moment trying to compose my answer. I had been thinking a lot about this and wasn't sure of what his reaction might be. "Well, we could always do the long distance relationship thing and visit each other as often as we could. The only problem with that is that you'll be starting your residency soon and won't really have time to visit," I stated as logically as I could.

Edward nodded but his face looked a little glum. "I have also contemplated another option, but I'm not sure what you will think of it," I said with hesitance clear in my voice.

Edward stroked my cheek with a finger and lifted my chin up so that my eyes met his. "You can tell me any opinion you have. I will always listen to anything you have to say."

I took a deep breath. "I could really work from anywhere. Aside from making a few trips here and there to see the publishing company, I would essentially be working from home," I began. I could see puzzlement in his face as to where I was going with this. "My home could be anywhere, even the beach," I finished and tried to look away from his eyes, but he still had a hold on my chin.

I watched as his eyes searched my face looking for an answer to an unspoken question he had. "You would do that for me?" he finally asked quietly.

I shrugged my shoulders since I was unable to nod my head up and down. "I would do anything to stay by your side. I love you."

"I don't know how I could ever deserve you, Bella," Edward said. "I love you, too." Then he leaned in another inch and kissed me.

We broke apart both breathing heavily. "I was thinking that after I go back to Forks, I'd stay there for a little while to break Charlie in on the idea," I contemplated out loud. "Then, I could pack all of my stuff up, what little I have, and move it down here. I'd still have to find a place to live here though. Maybe you could help me find somewhere to stay?"

Edward just looked at me with a huge grin on his face. "Bella, you can stay with us. We have plenty of room in the house."

"Really? But, wouldn't your parents mind?" I questioned. "I really don't mind finding a small apartment somewhere around here."

"Bella, we can ask them later if it would make you feel better about the situation, but I promise that they wouldn't mind one bit if you stayed with us."

I pondered that for a moment before relenting. Edward always seemed to know what to say to me to make me feel better about a situation.

"So, did you want to go swimming?" I asked changing topics.

"That _is _why I told you to wear a bathing suit," Edward said smiling. "Although, we should probably stay close to shore because the water is getting really choppy. Might be a storm coming in soon."

"Whatever you say," I said.

Edward stood up and helped me to my feet. I watched and tried to keep my mouth from dropping open again as he pulled his shirt off. He had such a perfect body that I was hesitant to remove my clothes and reveal the skimpy bikini Alice had me wear.

Edward got down to his board shorts and looked over at me with one eyebrow raised. "Aren't you coming in the water?"

I looked down and kicked my bare foot around in the sand. I worried my lower lip out of habit, "Umm... yes?"

Edward slowly walked over and grabbed my hand in his while using his other hand to raise my chin up and tug my bottom lip free. "What's wrong?"

I sighed heavily and blushed out of embarrassment. I couldn't tell Edward that I was self-conscious of my body because his was so perfect that it put me to shame.

"I've already seen you in a bathing suit, Bella," he said seeming to guess where my hesitance came from. "You're beautiful, love."

Once again he managed to say just the right thing to put me at ease. I was thankful that I had him around and smiled up at him. I could see the love shining out of his emerald eyes, and it took all the worries and self-conscious feelings I had away. I pulled off my t-shirt and shorts so that I was down to the bikini and took his hand once again.

His breath hitched as he saw the skimpy bikini I was wearing. I looked up into his face and heard him groan. "You are going to be the death of me wearing stuff like that, Bella."

I smiled widely and we took off for the ocean water. Before we reached the water, Edward swooped in and picked me up bridal style. He somehow managed to carry me while jogging into the water with me.

After going in several feet from the shore he stopped. "How's the water?" I asked.

"It's nice and warm," he said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

I wondered what he was up to, but didn't wait very long to find out. He let go of me suddenly and I fell with a splash into the water. I came up to the surface, which reached almost up to my shoulders, and splashed Edward as hard as I could for dropping me like that. He just laughed and dodged most of the splash before wrapping his arms around my waist.

We continued enjoying the warm salt water for another hour or so before coming back to lay down on the beach towel. Instead of drying myself off completely, I laid back on my elbows and allowed the sun shining down on me to help with the drying process. It felt good to have the warm beams of light shine down on my skin. I closed my eyes as I relished the warmth.

I felt Edward's eyes on me and turned to look at him. He was staring at me and his eyes seemed to be smoldering. "Do you know how irresistible you look in that bathing suit?" he asked.

I giggled and replied, "I can't be better than you with your perfect body."

I leaned over to lightly kiss his lips. As soon as I broke away from the kiss, Edward fisted his hand in my hair and brought my lips back to his. I moaned into the kiss, which seemed to spur him on even more. He leaned me back so that I was now laying on my back on the beach towel with him hovering over me. He moved away from my mouth to allow us both to catch our breath, but he still continued kissing down my neck and along my collarbone.

We probably would have continued kissing for eternity if it hadn't been for my cell phone ringing shrilly. Edward broke away from me and I sighed heavily. I sat up and reached over for the stupid phone.

"Hello," I said irritably.

"Hey Bella!" Alice chirped from the other end. I groaned internally knowing that Alice always had a way of ruining the mood for me and Edward.

"What do you want Alice?"

"Well, don't sound all grumpy now," Alice said. "The group was thinking about going to this place called Buddy's Playground, and we wanted you guys to come along, too."

"Buddy's Playground?" I asked raising my eyebrow at the name. How good could it be with a name like that?

Edward whispered, "You would like it."

I rolled my eyes at both of them even though Alice couldn't see me do it. "Okay, we'll come along."

"Great!" Alice said. I could hear her clapping over the phone. Knowing her, she was probably jumping up and down, too. "Meet us there in about an hour."

I hung up and turned to Edward who had a grin on his face. "So, when are we meeting them?" he asked.

"About an hour," I replied. "I guess that means that we should get going, so that we have enough time to change and get ready."

"Let's go," he said jumping up quickly and holding his hand out to help me up.

Everything from the picnic and our day at the beach was quickly packed up and taken to the car. Instead of taking his time and driving only ten miles over the speed limit, Edward flew down the highway back to the resort to drop me off.

When we had arrived back at where I was staying, Edward said, "I would walk you back to the door, but I need to get a shower and change clothes so I'm going to head back home really quick and come back to pick you up when I'm finished."

"Okay," I said climbing out of the car with my bags. "I'll see you in a little while."

I watched as he drove off in the direction of his house and made my way up to the hotel room to get ready for later.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N Thanks for the overwhelming response for the story. I really appreciate it and hope you continue to enjoy.

* * *

**Bella POV**

I showered quickly for once washing all the sand and salt water off my body. After drying off I went into the bedroom thinking about what to wear. Alice didn't say what we were doing this afternoon at Buddy's Playground, but with a name like that, surely I would be fine with going for comfort. I picked out a pair of shorts and a name shirt to go along with it. After wearing a t-shirt earlier, I figured that I would make Alice happy by wearing something a little bit better.

Once I finished putting my clothes on, I tied my hair up in a loose bun and sat waiting for Edward to come back by to pick me up. I didn't have to wait very long. I might have been sitting on the sofa vaguely watching some sitcom on the television when I heard a knock on the door. I almost ran to the door in my excitement at seeing Edward once again. I opened the door to find Edward with his crooked grin on his face.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

I nodded. "Let me just grab my bag."

I went back to the middle of the room and grabbed my bag that had my wallet, phone, and anything else I might need. I saw Edward smirking as I came back in his direction. He had probably noticed that it was hard for me to walk at a normal speed with him around. He just made me so giddy all the time with his presence.

It wasn't long before we arrived at Buddy's Playground. The place was fairly large and had a tropical island theme to it. They offered mini-golf and a giant maze to do here. I was surprised, but happy, to see Angela and Ben here with the rest of us. Since today was his last day here, I knew that they had planned on spending their day together.

"Hey Angela, good to see you here," I said once I reached everyone in the group near the front.

"We decided that we didn't want to stay away from everybody all day long, so when Alice called me earlier, we decided to come along," Angela told me.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Alice asked cheerfully.

We didn't all want to do the maze or mini-golf at the same time because it would take a lot longer with all of us together. It was decided that Angela, Ben, Alice, and Jasper would go on the mini-golf course while the rest of us would do the giant maze. If we had time once we were done with the first thing, we would switch over to the next one.

Edward paid for both of us and was handed two tickets by the cashier. She pointed us in the direction of the entrance to the maze and told us to punch our cards on the time clock when we start. There were four different checkpoints where we punch our tickets to show that we completed each stage of the maze.

Emmett was practically bouncing from excitement while Rosalie just looked at him like he was insane for being that hyperactive. Edward and I walked over to the entrance and all four of us punched our tickets and went into the maze.

The maze was about seven feet tall and made up of plywood that was all painted white. There wouldn't be an easy way to tell which direction you were going in or even if you were backtracking.

Emmett was running back and forth up the aisle waiting on us to follow. I could tell that Rosalie was getting annoyed by his childlike behavior.

"Emmett!" Rosalie yelled, "stop acting like a five year old!"

Rosalie was good for him. The evidence for this was that Emmett immediately stopped running around and faced her with an apologetic face. "I'm sorry, Rosie," he said with puppy dog eyes.

"Okay, just be good and stay with me from now on," Rosalie told him.

I looked over to Edward and he smiled with a knowing grin on his face. We both knew that Emmett was whipped for all intents and purposes.

Emmett and Rosalie both took off turning right at the first fork we came to. Edward and I reached the fork and decided to make a left. I think this was mostly to get further away from Emmett and his antics.

Edward grabbed my hand and began leading me through the maze. We made turn after turn and kept running into dead ends. At one point, Edward came to a halt in front of a dead end so quickly that I ran right into him.

"Oh sorry," he said steadying me.

"Do you have any clue as to where you're going?" I asked. "Because I'm completely turned around in here."

"It's called following the nose," Edward said smiling.

"You have got to be kidding me," I mumbled.

Edward laughed loudly. I guess he heard what I said. "I just really want to beat Emmett, actually."

I chuckled, "Well, lead the way."

We turned back around and tried to make our way through the maze to the first checkpoint. From where we were currently standing, I could see a large tower nearby. We just had to figure out how to make our way to it.

Edward wasn't doing us any good so far by leading, so I stepped in front of him at one of the dead ends and began dragging him behind me. I didn't really know where I was going, but I tried to keep that tower in my sight, and make the appropriate turns that would lead us closer to it.

After a few more wrong turns, I silently rejoiced as I saw the stairs leading up to the tower right in front of me. I didn't want to trip, so I walked as quickly as I could up the stairs to the tower and raised both of my arms up in the air in victory. It probably looked stupid to anybody who saw us, but I was just thankful that we were a quarter of the way through the maze now.

Edward punched our tickets and said, "Maybe you should keep leading the way. You seem to be pretty good at this."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I just saw the tower and tried to keep going in that direction. The rest was all luck."

He smiled and gave me a quick kiss before grabbing my hand and leading me down the opposite flight of stairs so we could begin trying to get to the second tower. I wondered where Emmett and Rosalie were because I haven't heard him in a while. When I voiced my thoughts to Edward, he just smirked.

"You might not _want_ to know where they are, Bella," he said.

The way he said that, I could only imagine what those two were getting into. I just hoped that we didn't happen to run into them doing anything that I don't want to see along the way.

Edward and I made quick progress to get to the second and third towers, but soon got turned around when we tried to find the final one. We were taking turns leading each other, but neither of us were having much luck.

"Ugh, this is so frustrating!" I complained.

"Maybe I should help take your mind off it," Edward said in his velvety voice.

I quirked an eyebrow at him. "And how do you plan to do that?"

We had reached another dead end. Before I could move in another direction out of the dead end, Edward began stepping closer and closer to me. Without really thinking about it, I backed up with every step he took forward. Soon, I was backed up against the plywood wall with nowhere to go. Edward came forward until he was only inches away from me. He put his arms up on either side of my head and leaned in even further until I could feel his warm, minty breath on my face. Our lips met in a passionate kiss that made me forget all my frustrations, which is probably what he was going for.

"Rose, look at Edward and Bella making out!" Emmett hollered.

We quickly broke away from each other and turned in the direction of Emmett's voice. I knew my face was tomato red in embarrassment from not only being caught by Emmett, but also from the fact that he yelled it so loud that everyone in the maze could hear him.

I watched Rosalie look in our direction. She then preceded to hit Emmett on the back side of his head. Hopefully, it will knock some sense into him, but I doubted it. Edward was already striding forward in the direction of the tower Emmett was standing on. I had a feeling that he would love to give Emmett a good punch.

I quickly followed behind Edward on our way to find Emmett. I can't believe that he got so much further ahead of us in the maze. One of them had to be lucky at finding the correct route through it. We made several twists and turns but we seemed to be getting closer to the last tower pretty fast. I think it was due to our determination to reach Emmett quickly. Once he saw the angry determination on Edward's face, he quickly stepped down from the tower trying to get away from a very annoyed brother.

We quickly reached the last tower. Edward thrusts our tickets in the machine to punch them. He grabbed my hand and we took off down the stairs from the tower going as fast as we could while allowing me to still maintain my footing. It wasn't long before we reached the final turn and Edward made the last punch in our tickets.

Emmett and Rosalie were waiting outside the maze for us. Emmett had a silly grin on his face while Rosalie was looking somewhat apologetic on behalf of us. Edward stalked over to his brother and punched him in the upper arm.

"Idiot," Edward muttered.

"Hey, that hurt," Emmett whined while rubbing his arm.

"Serves you right for doing that to Edward and Bella," Rosalie stated. "You shouldn't be spying on the two of them and definitely not going out of your way to embarrass them."

Emmett pouted a little at Rosalie. "I'm sorry you guys," he said after turning to face us.

"It's okay," I said, "but don't ever do that again."

I noticed the rest of the group come out of the mini-golf course part of the place laughing hysterically. They made their way over to us and we waited for them to give some sort of explanation on what was so funny.

Angela noticed us and said, "You should have seen that last hole."

"What happened?" I asked.

"I'll be the first to say that I suck at golf," Ben said.

"Yea, Ben was horrible for the whole course," Alice said. "He kept hitting the ball in the little streams that went through or somewhere off in the bushes."

"A few times we had to go back to the front to grab new golf balls for him," Jasper interjected.

"So on the last hole, we expected the same thing to happen," Angela explained. "Ben gets up to the tee and hits the golf ball. Somehow it bounces off this rock that wasn't even on the coarse and then it drops right into the hole."

"He got a hole in one on that last hole which won him a free game!" Alice said excitedly.

We laughed along with them before calming down after a minute or so. It was getting dark, so I thought it was too late for us to switch and go on the golf course while the others did the maze. Dinner was soon brought up, and we each made suggestions on where to go and eat before finally deciding that Italian sounded pretty good.

We piled into the same vehicles we came in and took off toward a good Italian restaurant that Edward suggested. It was one of my favorite types of food, so I was looking forward to going there.

Our group arrived there one after the other and we all walked in. Since Edward was in the lead, he stepped up to the hostess.

"My name is Lauren," she said while clearing looking Edward up and down. "How many will it be?"

"We need a table for eight," Edward said without paying her much attention.

"Right this way," she said after grabbing eight menus.

Lauren led us through the restaurant toward a large round table set near the back of the restaurant. We gathered around the table and sat down. She handed all of us a menu, but gave me a dirty look when I caught her staring at Edward again.

"Your waitress will be with you shortly," Lauren said before walking away.

I leaned over to Edward, who was sitting beside me, and whispered, "Did you notice her staring at you?"

He whispered back, "I noticed but chose to ignore it."

Edward tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Besides, I prefer brunettes," he whispered.

I smiled and gave him a quick peck on the cheek while we waited for the waitress to come over.

It wasn't long before a waitress came over. "My name is Jessica and I'll be your server tonight. What can I get for you to drink?"

I balled my hands into fists because this girl had not only appraised Edward openly, but she had actually licked her lips as she asked what she could get for us! I felt Edward's hand come to rest on my leg. He must have felt the tension and anger rolling off of me. We gave her our drink orders and she walked away after one last look toward Edward.

Emmett laughed, "Eddie, we can't take you anywhere without the ladies falling all over you."

Edward grimaced at the comment. I was about to strike out at Emmett from my irritation, but Rosalie beat me to it. I watched as she smacked the back of his head again to keep him in line. That actually brought a smile to my face.

Jessica came back with our drinks and took our orders. When she tried to act seductive again, everyone at the table gave her frosty looks. Her little smile wavered and she became business-like for the rest of the evening, which greatly helped my blood pressure level out.

"Did you tell Esme that you were going to be working for her?" I asked Alice during the meal.

"Yes!" Alice squealed. "I told her as soon as we stepped foot in the company. Bella you have got to see the place. Esme did all the decorating inside and it is absolutely breathtaking. I can't wait to start in two weeks."

"If you're starting work in two weeks, when are you going to move down here?" I asked.

"Well, I've already started making a few phone calls to places that I might be interested in," Alice said. "I guess I'll move everything shortly after we go back to Forks. Oh, and you'll have to come help me get everything set up."

I barely managed to keep from rolling my eyes. Alice always said she wanted help to get things set up, but really she just wanted someone to do the labor part of the work while she ordered everyone around. I didn't mind really because that's Alice and I was used to it. I'd hate to see the day she got someone to help her who didn't know this about her though.

"I'm going to miss you so much, Bella," Alice said sadly. "We'll have to figure out a way to see each other often."

I just nodded my head in agreement because I didn't want to say anything about the possibility of me moving down here officially until I had cleared it with Charlie. Edward's hand gave my knee a squeeze. I glanced over at him and I could tell that he was able to read my every thought just by looking at my face. His touch brought a little reassurance to me that we were doing the right thing and not moving our relationship too fast. I just hoped we could make it all work out for us.

"I'll probably be moving down here soon, Alice," Rosalie piped up. "I found a couple of automotive companies that could use a good design engineer, so I'm just waiting to hear back from them. Anyway, if all goes well, then I should be able to help you get settled and you could return the favor with me."

"Really?" Emmett said with an excited grin lighting up his face. "You're going to be moving down here for good?"

"If I get the job, I will be living down here," Rosalie replied with a smile. Those two were so in love with each other.

"I can't believe I'm going to be able to have you here forever," Emmett said giving Rose the biggest hug that he was capable of while sitting at a table.

Jasper stated in his soft southern voice, "I've already heard back from one of the colleges here. They've offered me a position to teach History classes full time. I'll also get to devote some of my time into further research of the Civil War while I'm there."

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier, Jasper?" Alice said bouncing in her seat. "This would be your dream job, and we could be together without the long distance between us."

I looked away warily. All of the couples around the table had found ways to be together. Granted, Edward and I discussed my moving down there earlier today, but I still had to make sure Charlie was okay with the idea. I was worried of what he would say about me moving somewhere that far away from Forks, particularly if he thought it was because of Edward.

It's not like Charlie wouldn't like Edward. Charlie just wants to be the best father he can be for me, which means that to him, Edward is just another guy who wants to steal his only daughter away. I just felt like I needed to tread carefully around Charlie when I got back home in order to give myself the best chance at being able to move down here without a big battle being fought. The last thing I want to do is fight with my father.

Edward leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Are you okay?"

I sighed, "I'm just envious of everyone, I guess."

"Why is that?" Edward asked.

"Everyone seems to have everything working out for them just the way they want it. I just want Charlie to agree to let me move down here so that I can have my happy ending, too."

"You don't think he will?" he questioned with his eyebrows raised.

"I think it depends on what Charlie sees as the motive behind the move," I tried to explain. "If he thought it was for my career, then he would be fine with it because that's something that would help me out in the future. However, if he thought I was moving just because of you, then he would definitely oppose me going anywhere."

"So what are you planning to tell him?"

I chewed on my bottom lip debating on the answer. "I guess I'm going to stick as close to the truth as possible while still giving myself a decent chance of not getting into an argument with him."

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out," Edward said kissing my temple.

I liked the 'we' part of that statement. I managed to sit back and relax with all of my friends for the rest of the meal.

Toward the end of dinner, Alice said, "Hey guys, anyone want to go to a club tonight?"

"I think you can count us out, Alice," Angela said.

"Yeah, I'd like to spend my last evening with Angela," Ben said while gazing into Angela's eyes.

"We'll go," Rosalie said for both her and Emmett.

Edward looked at me silently asking my opinion. "Count us in, too" I told Alice who squealed in excitement.

"Okay, we need to get back to the hotel, so we can get ready for the club," Alice planned.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N Okay, so I just wanted to apologize for the delay in getting this chapter up. It all started with some bad RAM on my laptop. Then, I decided to rewrite the chapter on another computer, but I lost my internet connection over the weekend. Anyway, I'm finally back up and running so hopefully no more computer downfalls to come. Enjoy.

* * *

**Bella POV**

A short while later, I was dropped off at the hotel with Alice while the boys went to the house to get ready for the club we were planning to go to. Alice ushered me into the shower within seconds of me setting foot past the door to our hotel room.

As always, I took my time in the shower, relishing the hot water running its course over my body. I used my favorite strawberry shampoo to wash my hair when I was done cleaning everything. After giving myself a good rinse, I finally stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around myself.

I padded out of the bathroom and into the bedroom I shared with Alice.

"I've already laid out your clothes for tonight," Alice told me when I entered the room.

"I really didn't need any help picking out underwear," I told her after noticing what she had picked out. "Can you even call that underwear?"

Alice rolled her eyes. "Just wear them, Bella."

"Fine," I replied.

Alice left the room to get a quick shower before she got ready. I took the opportunity to put my clothes on. I grimaced as I picked up the panties. They were navy blue and lacy. Definitely something that I would never pick out for myself, but knowing Alice, she would check to make sure that I had them on. I pulled them on and was pleased to note that at least they weren't uncomfortable. I suppose she could have done worse.

The dress she picked out for me was beautiful. It was navy blue with spaghetti straps. After admiring it on the hanger for a minute, I put in on. The dress seemed to be a perfect fit and made me feel pretty.

Alice came racing into the room with a towel wrapped around her and brush in one hand with some eyeliner in the other hand. I heard a knock on the door, so I went to see who had arrived.

I opened the door to find Rosalie standing on the other side of it. She looked stunning in a red dress that fit her like a glove hugging all of her curves and emphasizing her chest.

"Hey Bella, I came to help," she said as she walked into the room. "Where's Alice?"

"I'm in here," Alice called from the bathroom.

It couldn't have been more than a couple minutes, but by the time Rose and I reached the bathroom, Alice was already dressed and almost done putting on her makeup. She looked cute in a purple dress that had a silver lining along the edges.

As soon as she finished getting ready, I was pushed into a chair in the bathroom. Rosalie took over the task of making my hair somewhat manageable while Alice began working on my makeup for the evening. I didn't pay much attention to what they were doing. I mainly just went to my happy place and thought about how wonderful it was to be on the beach today with Edward. I lost myself in thoughts of our morning together before I was brought to my senses by Alice.

"Okay, we're finished," Alice said.

I looked in the mirror and was amazed by what I saw. Rosalie had made my hair hang straight down my back with perfect curls on the ends. Alice had given me a light makeup application. She used just enough to give my face a little color while adding a smoky eye look.

"What do you think?" Rosalie asked.

"I think you guys did a great job," I said with amazement clear in my voice.

"Okay, the guys should be here any minute," Alice said.

We all walked out of the bathroom. I went back into the bedroom to grab the shoes Alice set out for me. Being that Alice had picked out the shoes, I was strapping on some stilettos and praying that I wouldn't break a leg at some point tonight.

I carefully walked out of the bedroom in the shoes. Alice and Rose gave me wide smiles from their seats in the living area and looked as if they were proud of some major achievement. I grimaced and decided to get some fresh air, so I headed to our little balcony.

I really enjoyed having a balcony to relax on. I think it might be something that I would try to find if I ever purchased a home for myself. It was such a sense of peacefulness being able to stand or sit here and lose yourself to the scenery.

I heard several voices coming from inside. I guessed that the guys had arrived to take us to the club. I waited another few minutes outside before coming back into the living room. Everyone was here and it sounded like they were trying to pick out which club to go to tonight.

I saw Edward in the middle of the discussion with his back turned toward me. Jasper noticed me enter first and his eyes widened. He jabbed Emmett, who was standing next to him, in the elbow. Emmett looked away from Alice and saw me standing there. Then he whistled in approval.

"Bella, you're looking good," Emmett said.

I was embarrassed by the attention and felt my cheeks flush red. I tried to take the conversation away from me by asking, "Have you guys decided where we're going yet?"

Edward had turned around to see me as soon as Emmett whistled. I watched as his eyes took me in. He answered, "We're going to Fire and Ice. It's the best club in town and seems to meet with Alice's approval."

"Okay," I said.

Everyone walked out of the room leaving me behind with Edward. He walked up to me and said, "You look breathtaking."

I looked up in his emerald eyes and replied, "Thank you."

"Shall we?" Edward asked giving me his crooked grin.

I allowed him to lead me out of the hotel room. His hand never left the small of my back as we made our way to his car. We were all taking separate cars again so we could leave the club at different times if we chose to.

It wasn't long before we all pulled into the parking lot of Fire and Ice. Edward opened the door and helped me out of the car. I gazed around the exterior of the club. Other than the typical club exterior that you could find anywhere, the one thing that I noticed right away was the line of people waiting to get inside. I had never seen one so long. It actually stretched all the way around toward the back of the building.

"Will we even be able to get inside?" I asked.

"Sure," Emmett answered. "I know a guy that will help us out."

Emmett and Rosalie led the way toward the front entrance. I was waiting to see money exchanging hands or some sort of bribe in order for Emmett to get us inside. Instead, Emmett walked up to the bouncer and greeted him like an old friend would. He gestured to all of us standing behind him, and the bouncer allowed all of us to walk past everyone in line and through the entrance.

The inside of the club was enormous. The dance floor alone could hold several hundred people easily. I looked around trying to take it all in as I followed the group to a large table that would accommodate all of us. I vaguely wondered who had decorated the interior of the club. The walls of the club were blood red in color. There were several drink stations set up catering to every person's whim. All of these drink stations as well as the tables were clear. Each chair in the room was white. I thought it was an odd combination to use, but I supposed it fit in with the name of the club.

They seemed to play a wide variety of music as well. When we first walked in the door, they were playing a song by Usher. Now they had moved on to some techno song that had an even larger number of people out on the dance floor.

I leaned over to Edward and said, "This seems to be a popular place."

"It's the largest night club in the area," he replied.

"Anybody want anything to drink?" Jasper asked.

"I'll take a Cosmo," Alice said.

"A Bloody Mary sounds good right about now," Rosalie replied.

"Get me a Jack and Coke," Emmett told him.

"I'll help you get the drinks," Edward offered. "Bella, is there anything you want me to get for you?"

"Surprise me," I said smiling up at him.

It wasn't long before Edward and Jasper were back with our drinks. I quickly took a sip of the drink Edward sat down in front of me. Clubs and dancing was not really something I would do on my own, but Alice always finds a way to get me to come along. A nice drink usually helps me relax and forget at least some of my inhibitions.

"How do you like it?" Edward asked.

"It's great," I answered. "What is it?"

Edward gave me a seductive smile before responding, "Sex on the Beach."

I'm not sure what expression was on my face when I heard what the drink was called, but I visibly took a gulp. Edward noticed and laughed. "Bella, what kind of guy do you think I am?" he asked still laughing.

"Umm," I couldn't find any words to say to him. I think my brain had a total disconnect from my body.

"I just thought you would enjoy that particular drink because of what's in it," Edward continued with a smirk. He then leaned in even closer to whisper in my ear where no one would be able to hear what he was saying, "I would much rather wait until after marriage to do anything on the beach."

Alice interrupted anything that I might have said to respond to Edward with, "Let's go dance! They're playing one of my favorite songs!"

The song "Popular" by The Veronicas had just started playing and Alice grabbed my arm to drag me out onto the dance floor with her and Rosalie. I shot a backwards glance at the guys at the table, but they were just grinning their faces off watching us.

Alice finally stopped once we were almost smack dab in the center of the dance floor with people surrounding us on all sides dancing to the music. Alice and Rose were already dancing to the beat of the song. I couldn't just stand here or I would look stupid, so I started moving my hips to the beat of the music. Over the years, Alice had shown me how to do a few moves on the dance floor, so I wasn't completely inept. Once I found the beat of the music, I began incorporating some of the moves I've learned over the years from watching Alice.

I was finally getting comfortable out here on the dance floor and shot a glance in the direction of the table we left. I could barely see the guys still sitting there with all the people in between my line of sight. It looked like they were joking around and having a good time. Edward must have felt my gaze on him because he looked up and caught my eye. I smiled and waved a little at him before turning around in the direction of Alice and Rose, who were dancing together.

The three of us danced together and did every dance move we could think of that would make a guy's head turn. I noticed that Rosalie had quite a few guys around us practically drooling. The current song transitioned into one that I was more familiar with. They were now playing "So Hott" by Kid Rock. I closed my eyes and moved myself to the music feeling the beat hum through my body. As the music really kicked in, I felt two warm hands grab onto my waist.

I leaned back against a solid chest and slightly turned my head to look up at Edward. He leaned down to give me a kiss before saying, "You looked too good to resist out here by yourself."

He guided me with his hands to the beat of the music. I had backed up so there was practically no space between the two of us as we danced together. Every so often, Edward would lean down and kiss my neck or jaw line. My heart pounded with every touch he made, and somehow I knew that I would never love another man like I loved Edward.

I always thought the term 'soul mate' was corny. I still couldn't say that I would call Edward my soul mate, but he was definitely something more than just a simple boyfriend. I'm not sure what word I would use to describe our relationship. In the past few days, it seems as if something epic had changed with me. Neither Alice nor Angela have said anything to me about any changes with me so maybe it wasn't drastic enough to be noticeable to them. I could tell that I have changed though. For the first time in my life, I felt like an adult who could make life-changing decisions for myself.

Never in a million years would I have contemplated making a cross-country move just to be closer to my boyfriend a few weeks ago. Now I'm actually planning to ask Charlie about it as soon as I get back home.

I was taken away from my thoughts by Edward's velvety voice. "Would you like to take a break?"

I nodded my head and held his hand as he weaved his way through the crowd of dancers back to our table. It wasn't long after we sat down that the other two couples joined us at the table.

"Bella, you were looking good out there," Rosalie said.

I flushed and muttered, "Thanks."

"Yeah Bella," Emmett agreed. "You even got Eddie-boy out there to dance with you. That's saying something. He never dances when he goes to a club."

"Don't call me Eddie," Edward retorted to Emmett.

"You don't ever dance?" I asked with confusion laced in my voice. He definitely knew how to dance based on how he moved on the dance floor a few minutes ago with me.

I was surprised to see that Edward looked embarrassed. "No, I don't usually dance."

"Then how come you decided to dance tonight?" I pressed trying to get more information.

Edward looked around the table and saw that everyone was watching our exchange. "Later," he finally said before shooting a glare in Emmett's direction. Emmett just chuckled and I decided that I was going to remind Edward to tell me later tonight once we were alone.

"Lovegame" by Lady Gaga started playing in the club and I found myself being dragged out onto the dance floor once again by Rosalie and Alice. Within less than a minute of us being out on the dance floor, Emmett and Jasper joined us, leaving me virtually without a partner. I looked around for Edward and caught a glance of him making his way toward a drink station. I guess he was planning to sit out this round of dancing, not that I blamed him one bit for that. I was contemplating leaving the dance floor since both Alice and Rose were occupied with their dates, but Alice caught my expression.

"Don't even think about it," she warned.

Instead of trying to argue over the music, I shrugged my shoulders and continued dancing. I tried to lose myself to the music, and for anybody watching, I was probably doing a pretty good job. It just wasn't the same without Edward dancing with me though.

I was just about to do another visual scan to see where he was and if I could get him to out on the dance floor with me when I felt two warm hands grasp me by the hips. I turned around smiling in order to give Edward a kiss for joining me when I stopped short.

It wasn't Edward that was holding onto me; it was Jacob.

"What are you doing here, Jacob?" I asked with a scowl etched on my face.

"I was here with some friends of mine when I saw you dancing," Jacob said.

I tried to walk away, but Jacob kept a firm grip on my hips preventing that course of action. "Why don't you go back to your buddies and leave me alone?"

"Look, I do want to apologize for the other night," he said. "I was a jerk for just leaving you there all by yourself with no way home."

I didn't feel like there was anything to say to that. I just continued to glare at him. I took a quick visual scan of the room, but didn't see Edward anywhere around. Not to mention, I'm not even sure where the other two couples were off to because they were no longer dancing in my vicinity. I was pretty much all alone with a guy I don't like.

"I did go back there later. I was going to take you home if you were still there, but when I didn't see you, I figured you had gotten a ride home."

"And what would have happened if some psycho had decided to pick me up?" I asked angrily.

"I'm really sorry, Bella," Jake pleaded. "Please forgive me."

"If it wasn't for my friends coming to the rescue, who knows what could have happened out there," I told him.

"Give me a chance to make it up to you," Jake said shooting me a puppy dog look.

"Okay, okay," I relented. "I forgive you."

"I can make everything up to you tonight," Jake said. "Why don't you dance with me?"

"I'd rather not," I told him trying to extract myself out of his iron grip, but I might as well have just stood there for all the good that did.

"Come on, I'm not going to bite," he said and pulled me even closer so there was barely room to breathe between the two of us. "I saw you dancing out here earlier and you are just too sexy to resist."

"Honestly, I really need to go find my friends," I told him.

I'm not sure what his reply was going to be because all I heard was, "Let go of her," from behind me.

Jake's arms dropped and allowed me to whirl around to see my knight in shining armor once again to the rescue.

"Who do you think you are?" Jake asked angrily.

"I would be Bella's date for the evening, so I would appreciate it if you stayed away from her tonight and every other night after," Edward said in a firm but calm voice.

Jacob huffed and walked away. I smiled and threw my arms around Edward in a hug worthy of Emmett.

"Thank you for rescuing me again," I said gratefully.

Edward smiled and replied, "I leave you alone for a minute and the wolves descend."

"I guess you should never leave me alone then," I shot back with a smile. "So where is everyone?"

"That was actually why I came out to find you on the dance floor in the first place," Edward began. "I'll explain on the way back to the hotel, but we really do need to be leaving."

I gave him a questioning look, but he just leaned over to kiss the top of head and ushered me toward the exit.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N Still don't own Twilight. I'm just playing with the characters.

* * *

**Bella POV**

It took no time at all to reach Edward's car. I hadn't seen any of the others along the way. I thought they might be outside already gathered near the other vehicles, but was disappointed to see that not only were they not there waiting, but the other two vehicles had already left the premises.

"Edward, what's going on? Where is everyone?"

Edward opened the passenger door for me and replied, "Just get in and I'll explain everything on the way back to your hotel."

I hopped in and Edward soon had us racing down the streets back to the hotel.

I turned to look at him and he met my gaze before sighing heavily. "Mom called me while we were in the club. Everyone was out on the dance floor, so I wasn't too worried about leaving for a few minutes to see what she wanted. She knew that we were all out together and wouldn't normally call unless it was important," Edward explained.

"What's wrong? Are your parents okay?"

"Don't worry, everyone's fine."

"I don't understand," I said thoroughly confused.

"The reason she called is why I'm taking you back to the hotel. Everyone else is probably already there because I found them when I was looking around the club for you. There's a hurricane making its way here."

"A hurricane?"

"They've already issued a voluntary evacuation order, so most of the hotels in the area are encouraging their guests to leave. When we get back, I want you to get yourself packed and ready to go as quickly as you can."

"Wait, what?"

Edward turned to look at me again, his eyes smoldering. "I can't run the risk of you getting hurt during the storm, Bella. I need to make sure you get to the airport as soon as you can so you can fly back to Forks."

At the moment, I didn't care about my well-being. I only cared about being with Edward. "But I can't leave you," I managed to choke out. I took a deep breath before continuing, "You want me to be safe, but I need to be with you. I need to know that you're okay. I'll be crazy with worry if you make me leave you."

Edward shook his head. "That doesn't change the fact that you are going to get on a plane back home."

I crossed my arms and tried not to cry as we neared the hotel. I knew I was acting childish, but I didn't care.

When we arrived back at the hotel, Edward escorted me from the car to my room. When I used the pass key to open the door, I was greeted with a frantic Alice scurrying room to room trying to pack all of her stuff together. I'm not sure how she could have placed so many things all over the hotel room, but somehow she managed to do just that.

Angela was also there and packing her things away. She was more reserved about the whole situation, which is pretty much what I would expect out of her. At least she didn't have to worry about leaving Ben because he had already planned to fly back tomorrow.

I looked at Edward silently before walking into the room I shared with Alice and pulling my suitcase out of the closet. I threw it on the bed and began grabbing my clothes out of the closet and drawers where Alice had stashed them away during our stay. Edward came over without saying a word and folded all of them up neatly and placed them in my suitcase while I tried to find every last article that was brought.

"Bella," Alice called.

I walked into the living area where Alice and Angela were standing with their bags all packed and ready to go. I was surprised to see that Jasper was also here. I thought that he would be getting Rosalie to the airport and they would head back to Texas by now.

"Angela's going to drive the rental car to the airport and return it," Alice said. "I'm going to ride with Jasper in their rental car over there. When we get there, we'll book tickets for all of us to fly back."

"Okay, I'll see you guys in a bit after I finish getting everything packed and check out of the hotel," I told them.

I watched as they grabbed their bags and headed out the door on their way to the airport. Our sunny vacation had definitely taken a turn for the worse.

I sighed and went to the bathroom to gather my toiletry bag so it could be packed with everything else. Edward had already finished folding all of my clothing into the suitcase. After placing my toiletry bag in it, I made a quick tour of the hotel room double checking to make sure that not only did I have everything of mine, but also that neither Alice nor Angela had left anything in their rush.

"Well, I think that's everything," I said.

"Let's get you to the airport then," Edward responded.

I walked out of the hotel room for the final time bidding it a silent goodbye. We walked in silence to the car, each of us lost in our own thoughts. After Edward put my luggage in the trunk, he drove me the short distance to the front entrance. We walked inside together so I could officially check out of the hotel.

I walked right up to the front desk because it was only four in the morning by this time. "Hi, I need to check out," I told the man behind the desk.

He took the room keys from me and typed some stuff into his computer. They already had my credit card in their system, so I just signed a printed copy of our bill and was on my way again.

Edward was silent during the drive to the airport, and it was making me nervous. I knew I was probably being silly, but a small part of me wondered if his feelings were real. I knew what I felt for him and that I would do anything for him. I just didn't feel sure that he felt the same way. I wasn't even sure how he _could_ feel the same way for someone like me.

"What are you thinking?" I finally asked to break the silence that had lasted for too long for my comfort.

Edward sighed heavily. "I don't want you to have to go so soon, but you have to for your own good."

His answer lightened my mood. I really need to stop second-guessing things around me. It doesn't help and usually ends up making me worry more about nothing.

"I could always stay," I offered.

"You know I won't let you do that," Edward said shaking his head. "I'm not about to have you risk yourself in trying to weather out a storm."  
"But you're going to be here," I argued. "It's not like you or your family are evacuating."  
"It's not the same, Bella."  
"Tell me how it's not the same thing."

"Our family had been through this kind of thing before. Besides, your dad wouldn't want you to stay down here when you can go back home," Edward said trying a new tactic.

I mulled over what he said trying to come up with some sort of argument for what he said, but I really couldn't see any way to win against him this time.

"I'm going to miss you," I finally said.

"I'll miss you, too."

I decided that I needed a distraction from the thoughts of heading to the airport and leaving for Forks and a life away from Edward. I remembered our time at the club and that I wanted to find out more about why he was acting embarrassed earlier.

"Is it later?" I asked with a smile.

Edward looked over with confusion at my remark. It took him a moment before remembering what I was talking about.

"You want to know why I danced tonight if I don't normally do so," he spoke.

I laced my fingers together and waited for him to answer.

"The few times that I go to clubs with Emmett, I usually station myself at the bar or a table and have a few drinks while Emmett tries to pick up women. Tonight, I danced with you because not only do I really enjoy your company and want to remain in your presence at all times, but I also couldn't have you out there all by yourself."

I was just about to ask why, but Edward beat me to it.

He shook his head and chuckled softly. "You don't realize what a temptation you are to everyone."

I scoffed, "You must be crazy. I'm definitely not a temptation to anyone."

Edward stroked my cheek with a fingertip. "You don't see yourself clearly. You are very much a temptation for me as well as most other males around. I saw how all of them were watching you while you danced out there. I think I felt what it was really like to be jealous for the first time in my life."

"You were marking your territory by coming out there to dance with me," I guessed.

Edward pursed his lips. "I would rather not think of it as marking my territory, but I will admit that I was hoping that everyone would notice that you were spending your time with me and not approach you."

"Although Jacob did manage to come over when you were away," I said.

"Yes, hopefully we won't have to run into that dog again," Edward replied.

Edward pulled into the short-term parking at the airport. I was trying to keep my emotions under control so that I wouldn't break down and cry in front of him. I really didn't want him, or the public for that matter, to see a sobbing wreck.

Edward grabbed my bags from the trunk and carried them inside for me. The sunlight was barely starting to shine by this time. Even with that being the case, I had never seen so many people crowded in one place. There were lines of people at the ticket counters trying to get flights out. More lines spanned the rental car counters, although I couldn't tell from where I was standing if it was people picking up or dropping off.

"Bella!"

I turned in the direction I heard my name called and saw everybody standing in a big group off to the side. Edward and I walked over to join them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Well, we have a little problem," Alice said.

"Little problem?" Rosalie said incredulously. "I'd say we have one hell of a problem right now."

"Well, Jasper and I got in line and returned our rental cars as soon as we got here," Angela said from beside Ben.

"Okay," I said. I was waiting for the problem to be outlined for me.

"Rose and I got in line to get tickets for everyone while they were handling the cars," Alice said.

I was using my hands to motion them to get on with the story.

"So, we managed to get one ticket back to Forks," Alice said.

"One ticket…" I said trailing off as it clicked what they said. "Wait a minute. How are the rest of us going to get back?"

"Well, that would be the bigger part of the problem," Rosalie said. "You see that line over there?" she asked pointing in the direction of the rental car line I had seen when I walked inside.

I nodded to show that I saw where she was pointing.

"Since they returned the cars before we actually had tickets in our hand, we have no vehicle now," Rosalie said. "That line over there is actually for people who are trying to get a car, but we've already been told that the rental car companies are out of vehicles and won't be getting any more in until after the storm had come through."

"We're stuck," I said as realization hit me.

"I thought it would be best if Angela took the one ticket we could purchase," Alice said. "That way she'll be flying back with Ben, who was lucky enough to already have his ticket for today."

I smiled at Angela and reassured her, "Yeah, you should really take the ticket, Angela. Alice and I will be fine down here."

"Look, you guys are not going back to that hotel and I most certainly will not have you stay here in the airport," Edward finally put in.

"We'll take you back to our place," Emmett said. "That way, you'll be a little further inland than you would be if you were staying at the hotel and have a decent room over your head without all the smelly crowds."

Edward's phone rang at that moment and he walked a short distance away to answer it. He talked for a few minutes before hanging up and walking back over to us.

He looked up at Emmett before saying, "That was dad. He told us to bring everyone over when I explained the flight situation here. He also wanted us to get some supplied since we were already out."

"Bella, you go ahead and ride with Edward," Emmett said. "Everyone else can ride with me in the Jeep."

We all gave Ben and Angela parting hugs and goodbyes with promises to call if anything happened. I knew that Angela would worry about us until the storm blew over. Charlie would definitely find out about this as soon as she arrived back in Forks, so I knew that I needed to call him and let him know what was going on pretty soon.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N Thanks to all of you who have reviewed the story. Please keep the reviews coming. SM owns everything; I just play with the characters.

* * *

**Bella POV**

The six of us walked out of the airport together and gathered around Edward's Volvo and Emmett's Jeep. The guys placed our luggage back into the two vehicles. I think some of Alice's bags landed in Edward's trunk just because she brought so many with her for the trip.

"So, are we heading to your house now?" I asked.

"I guess we need to go there first just to unload all the luggage," Edward replied.

"We need to make it quick if we want to stock up on supplied," Emmett told him.

"Okay, let's get going," Edward told us.

I got into the passenger seat of Edward's vehicle while the others piled into Emmett's Jeep. We were racing down the road in no time at all toward the Cullen's home. I was looking forward to staying there and seeing Edward's parents again, even if it was under unfortunate circumstances.

A few minutes later, Edward and Emmett pulled up right in front of the house. Everyone got out of the vehicles and all of the luggage was unloaded by the guys. We carried it all inside and dropped it by the door for the time being.

Esme came out of the kitchen and greeted us, "Welcome back. Although, I do wish that all of you weren't here because you got stuck in Florida due to the storm coming in."

"We don't really mind being stranded here," Alice said.

"I hate that all of us are imposing on you though," I told her. I could see Edward roll his eyes out of my peripheral vision.

"None of you are imposing on us," Esme replied. "Carlisle and I are happy to welcome you into our home as if you were our very own children."

"Thank you for doing this for us," Rosalie said and all of us again thanked her for their generosity.

Esme shushed us with a wave of her hand and told us to make ourselves at home. Edward finally spoke up, "Emmett and I are heading out to get the supplies. You guys can stay here and relax while we're gone if you want."

"I want to come with you," I piped up.

"Hey man, I'll come along to help," Jasper said.

"Jasper, you can come with me," Emmett told him. "I'm headed to one of the home improvement stores and could always use another pair of hands loading everything."

"Sure," Jasper said. "Let's go."

"Bella, if you want to come along, you can ride with me," Edward told me.

"Alice and I will help get everyone's room set up for when you all get back," Rosalie began. "If Esme needs anything done around the house, we can always help her with that while you're out."

Everyone seemed to be deciding what needed to be done in preparation. Once it was all settled, I walked back out of the house and got into Edward's car. We drove off on our way to the local grocery store.

Forks doesn't exactly get any kind of severe weather unless you count a blizzard, so I didn't really know what kind of supplies people get from home improvement stores. I could guess what we might pick up from the grocery store. Things like water and canned food seem appropriate.

Edward pulled up in front of the local grocery store, which had a parking lot full of cars already even though it was still early in the morning. We quickly got out and Edward snatched a shopping cart that was in the parking lot to use. I would have asked why he didn't grab one from inside the store, but as soon as we entered the place I realized why he grabbed the first one he saw. There _weren't _any shopping carts in the store that weren't already being used by other shoppers.

"There's so many people here," I said to Edward. "Won't all the food and water be gone by now with all of these people?"

Edward laughed and I looked at him questioningly. "There's a joke we have about storms down here. Whenever there's a threat of bad weather, whether it be a hurricane or a one percent chance of a slight dusting of snow, everyone seems to go to the grocery store and buy milk and bread."

"Milk and bread?" I asked. Then I thought about it. "Won't milk spoil if the power goes out? I mean I can understand the bread because I suppose you could always make a sandwich using canned meat or something."

Edward gave me his crooked grin that I loved so much. "And that is why we joke about it all the time. Regardless of whether people understand that the milk will spoil or not, most people still stock up on milk instead of getting enough water. I've even seen people by hamburger meat and frozen foods before storms blew in."

"Wow," I stated in disbelief. "So do you have a list of things that we need to get?"

"Nothing written down," Edward replied.

"I was just thinking that if you had a list, I could help you get the items so that we could get back quicker."

Edward put his arm around me and hugged me into his side. "I don't mind grocery shopping all day as long as you're around." He shook his head slightly and had a smile on his face. "Okay, that sounded stupid, but it really is true."

"Maybe a little corny, but still sweet," I returned.

I didn't know what kind of food items Edward might want to pick up, so I just followed him as we went systematically through the store. The first stop was to the fruit and vegetables where Edward grabbed a couple bags of apples and oranges. He picked up several loaves of bread next. I noticed that there really wasn't much to choose from here. I guess most people had already grabbed their share of the item already.

We ventured into the cereal aisle. Edward didn't bother with any boxes of cereal. I guess it was because most people liked to have milk with their cereal and that just wouldn't work if the power went out for a lengthy period of time. Instead, we picked up several boxes of granola and cereal bars since they are good for snacks.

After running down a few more aisles in the store, our shopping cart now had peanut butter, crackers, lots of canned goods, and some party mix in addition to the items we had already picked up. Edward pushed the cart over to where the water was and picked up several cases of bottled water. It was enough to keep all of us over a period of several days. He also picked up batteries in various sizes as almost an afterthought.

"Is there anything else we need?" I finally asked. Our shopping cart was practically overflowing after Edward had put the batteries in it.

"Hmm," Edward said thoughtfully. "I think we have everything we need unless there's something that you might need."

"I can't think of anything," I replied with a shake of my head.

"Well, in that case, let's get in a checkout line."

All of the lines were long, so we just picked the shorter of the long lines to stand in until we could actually reach the register. It took a while to finally pay for all of our purchases, but soon we were out of the store and heading back to the car. We piled the trunk full of our groceries and got in to head back to the house.

It wasn't long before we were pulling up in front of the Cullen's house. Emmett and Jasper had already arrived and I watched as they unloaded plywood from the back of the Jeep. I helped Edward carry everything inside the house and put it away in the kitchen.

While we were gone, Alice and Rose took the initiative to put all of our stuff into various guest rooms around the house. It was less than a minute after Edward and I had put everything away when Alice came bouncing into the kitchen and dragged me away to show me where I would be staying.

I ventured upstairs with Alice tugging me the whole way. When she pointed to the room I would be sleeping in, I just smirked. It was the closest room to Edward's.

"I suppose you tried to think of everything?" I asked.

"You know good and well that you will want to spend as much time with Edward as possible," Alice responded. "I might as well make it a little easier for that to happen."

"Uh huh," I said smirking. "And where might your room be?"

Alice looked like she was going to squirm a bit but answered, "It might be the room next to Jasper's."

"At least you guys are in a different part of the house," I commented. "I wouldn't want to be kept awake at night."

Alice smacked my arm but grinned.

We went back downstairs only to find that all the guys were using the plywood to board up the glass window that spanned the back side of the house.

I saw Esme in the living room watching the news. "Is there anything we can help with?" I asked.

"Well, the boys are taking care of the majority of the work that needs to be done," Esme replied. "If you want, I suppose you can put all the outdoor furniture in our storage room out back."

"Sure," I replied simply.

Alice and I were joined by Rosalie, who helped us begin moving all the furniture that was amassed outside the house.

"As nice as all of this furniture is," Rosalie panted, "I wish they didn't have nearly as much."

We had finished moving all of the chairs inside the storage room, but we still had the tables and love seats to move. I think there might have even been a swing on the front porch. We continued moving furniture until we were down to the heavier pieces that would be difficult to move even with three of us lifting them together.

I sat down on the ground to rest a bit before contemplating how the three of us were going to finish moving the rest of the furniture inside. Alice and Rosalie perched themselves on either side of me and we just sat back on our elbows and relished the sun that was shining down on us while we took a break. I still haven't even heard or read any news about the storm coming, so I was clueless as to when the weather forecasters were even predicting that it would make landfall.

I was just about to stand up again and try to figure out a good way for us to move the rest of the furniture when I heard the guys walk over. I looked over to see three shirtless guys standing over us. I had to muster everything I had to keep indecent thoughts of Edward from running through my head. Glancing over at Alice and Rose, I'm pretty sure they didn't bother trying to keep their thoughts at bay.

"What are you guys doing?" a sweaty Jasper asked.

Alice appraised his body for a moment before speaking. "We were just taking a break from moving the furniture into the storage room. The rest of the pieces looked too heavy for us."

"We'll do it for you," Emmett said and immediately began lifting a love seat with Jasper's help.

I watched captivated as Edward helped move the rest of the outdoor furniture inside the storage room. Every physical part of his body screamed perfection. Alice nudged me at one point when my drooling became noticeable. Hopefully, no one else saw that particular aspect of my infatuation.

After they finished moving all the furniture inside the storage room, all of us went back inside the house. We were all hot and sweaty, so the first order of business was to get a shower. There weren't enough bathrooms throughout the house for all of us to shower at once, so we took turns.

Edward and Emmett's bedrooms both had en-suite bathrooms, so they showered first. Jasper went to shower in a guest bathroom that was located on the second floor. Fifteen minutes later, all of the guys were showered and dressed. I was happy to finally get a chance to really clean up from last night since we had left so quickly this morning that I never got a shower. Rosalie went into Emmett's bedroom to shower and Alice snatched the guest bathroom up so quickly that I'm surprised Jasper managed to get out of there dressed first.

I refused to wait for an hour before Alice finished using the guest bathroom, so I walked across the hall from my room and quietly knocked on the door.

"Come in," Edward called from inside his room.

I walked in and spotted Edward relaxing on a long leather sofa with a book in his hand.

"Is it okay if I take a shower in your bathroom?" I asked hesitantly.

"Of course," Edward replied getting up. "You really don't even need to ask. Make yourself at home while you're here and I would much prefer you using my bathroom. It's right across the hall from you."

I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before going back to my room for some clean clothes to put on after my shower. Edward had disappeared when I went back into his room. I walked into the bathroom and found a clean towel sitting on the counter for me to use. I smiled thinking of how Edward always thinks of everything. I stepped into the shower once the water was warm and washed myself of all the grimy buildup that I'm sure I had accumulated.

After a few minutes, I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off thinking about how wonderful it felt to be clean once again. I pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top before making my way downstairs to see what everyone was up to.

When I walked into the living room, I found Edward sitting on the sofa watching the evening news. I couldn't believe the day had already gone by so fast.

"Any word on the storm?" I asked sitting down beside him.

"Well, they showed people stocking up on food and boarding up businesses along the coast," Edward answered. "Other than that, they haven't said anything specific about it."

"Where is everyone?"

"Esme's in the kitchen working on dinner. Don't bother going in there to help because she wants to cook for all of us," Edward said guessing what I was about to do. "I'm pretty sure that Alice and Jasper went out for a walk. As for Emmett and Rosalie... Well, they're probably together somewhere and I'm not sure I want any more details with regards to them."

I chuckled knowing that he was probably right. We quieted down when the news came back after a commercial break to talk about the weather.

"Hurricane Dorian is currently a category two storm," the weatherman spoke. "I believe it will weaken a little overnight and make landfall around ten o'clock tomorrow morning as a category one storm. Remember all of your safety precautions. You should stay indoors in a secure building. Interior rooms are preferable because we commonly see tornadoes develop."

He continued on a little bit longer before signing off. I didn't know anything about tornadoes going hand in hand with hurricanes. I swallowed thickly before turning to Edward. "Tornadoes?" I squeaked out.

Edward sighed. "They happen sometimes."

He reached over to pull me into a hug. "Don't worry, I'll keep you safe," he said.

"I should probably call Charlie," I said. "He's probably already found out that Angela is back in town and I'm still down here."

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed Charlie's number. I heard one ring before the phone on the other side was snatched up. "Hello?" Charlie said.

"Hey dad," I spoke putting on a cheerful voice.

"Bella, where are you?" Charlie asked. "I ran into Mrs. Weber at the bank and she told me about a hurricane that was going to make landfall down there. Angela had called to tell her that she was on a plane and would be back here this afternoon."

Even though I knew that he might know about the storm, I had still been holding on to a dim hope that he might not have heard anything yet.

"Well dad, Alice and I are still in Florida," I told him calmly.

"What the devil are you doing in Florida?!" he shouted.

I held the phone away from my ear, wincing. Edward began rubbing soothing circles on my back helping to keep me calmed down.

"We didn't even find out about the storm until late last night, dad. By the time we got to the airport this morning all of the flights were booked."

"Then how did Angela manage to fly back?"

"Well, we did purchase one ticket, but decided that Angela could have it and Alice and I would stay down here until after the storm."

"Are you still staying at that hotel on the beach?"

"No, we checked out of the hotel," I told him.

"Then which hotel are you staying at now?" he asked.

I shot a worried glance at Edward. Charlie is not going to like this.

"We're not staying at a hotel," I mumbled.

"What?"

"I said that we aren't staying at a hotel," I repeated. "We're staying with the Cullens."

"And who, might I ask, are the Cullens?" Charlie asked angrily.

I could tell that Charlie was in interrogation mode. I figured that if I was going to be in trouble, I might as well not lie about anything. Maybe if I tell him everything quickly, he won't really pay as much attention to some of the details. What was I thinking? Of course he was going to pay attention to every single detail.

"Well, Alice and I met Emmett and Edward Cullen during our stay. Their parents are letting us stay at their house to weather out the storm."

"Are they home? I want to speak to them, _now_."

I gulped and stood up walking to the kitchen. I saw Esme taking some steaks that had been marinating out of the fridge.

"Esme?" I asked tentatively.

"What can I do for you, dear?" she asked smiling.

"Umm, my dad wants to speak to you," I said holding out my phone to her.

Esme took the phone from me and spoke, "Hello Mr. Swan, this is Esme Cullen."

I watched as Esme chatted with my dad for several minutes. I'm not sure what my dad had to say to her, but apparently Esme managed to convince him that I was out of harm's way by staying here. I knew that he was probably as concerned about the storm hitting us as he was about his daughter spending the night at a boy's house. It wouldn't matter to him that I'm grown and able to live on my own. I was still his little girl and he wanted to protect me from anything that could harm me.

When Esme was done talking to my dad, she handed the phone back to me.

"After talking with Mrs. Cullen, I guess it's okay that you're staying there," my dad finally admitted. "Just be careful and make sure that boy takes good care of you."

I smiled thinking about how well Edward has already taken care of me. "Thanks dad. I love you and I'll make sure I let you know when I'll be able to fly back."

"Okay Bells," my dad said. "I love you, too."

I hung up the phone and was happy that the worst was over.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N I still don't own Twilight. Here's a few of Edward's thoughts.

* * *

Edward POV

I watched as Bella talked to her father on the phone. I could tell from the one-sided conversation that I was able to hear that her dad was worried about her. I could understand that. If it was me, I would be worried too if I knew that my only daughter was stuck in the middle of a major storm and staying with people she ran into for the first time a few days ago. I tried to calm her by rubbing her hand back while she was speaking.

Eventually, I suppose her dad asked to speak with one of my parents because Bella got up and walked into the kitchen where my mother was cooking dinner for all of us. I didn't want to interfere with their conversation, so I stayed put on the sofa and watched the news.

I was glad to see that the hurricane was weakening slightly before it was to make landfall. That was always a good sign. I still worried that it might be strong enough to do some major damage to the area. I normally wouldn't really worry about our home being damaged, but now that Bella was staying here, it had become forefront in my mind. I couldn't have Bella getting hurt and I would do everything in my power to prevent that from happening.

I don't really consider myself an insecure person, but I did wonder if Bella would really move down here. I truly believed that she wanted to right now. The problem I could see was that she might see what one of the storms is like, particularly if this one turns out to cause any damage to the area, and decide to run away screaming. Well, I doubt she would be screaming, but the sentiment would still be there.

I sighed knowing that I shouldn't bother worrying about things like that because they don't matter. There's nothing I can do that will change the weather, so I might as well suck it up and hope for the best possible outcome. Hopefully, that outcome will involve Bella and I remaining together down here, at least for a few years while I finish my residency. Once I'm done with that, I would move anywhere she wants. I would happily give the world to my Bella.

I looked up when Bella came back into the room. I smiled and asked, "What's the verdict?"

"Well, it's not like he could really do anything about me staying here, but your mother must have eased whatever concerns he had because he agreed," Bella replied.

I nodded, "My mom has a way about making everybody at ease. I guess it's because she's always so kind and people sense that about her."

I heard the front door open and my dad ventured into the room. "Good to see you again, Bella, even if it is under such circumstances," Carlisle said.

"Thank you for allowing all of us to stay here," Bella responded.

Carlisle waved her thanks away. "I'll leave you two to enjoy yourselves then," he said before going upstairs. I imagine he was heading to his study to put his bag away and relax for a few minutes until dinner was ready.

"I really like your parents," Bella spoke up suddenly.

I smiled and wrapped my arm around her. "I like them, too,"

"I guess I envision them as the perfect parents. They are clearly very much in love with each other and have such a wonderful relationship. I can only hope to have that when I'm their age," Bella further explained as she snuggled into me further.

Her words made me realize that she has already changed me to the point that I couldn't go back to the way I used to be. From now on, I would always want Bella. She created a permanent change in my heart and soul. I'm not sure how all of the pieces of our lives will fit together in the end, but I felt confident that everything was going to work out. It had to because I was not planning to ever let go of her in my life.

I think both of us were tired of watching the news. The weather coverage was thorough, but the storm won't change its course or strength in a matter of minutes. I flipped the channel to a comedy. I don't think either one of us really paid a huge amount of attention to it. We were mostly stuck in our own thoughts. I just kept holding Bella to me. I was wondering if there was going to be a time when we could really be alone in this house. Right now, any one of the people staying here could come into the room. I suppose that we could move to my bedroom to be away from everyone, but I had my doubts as to that keeping anyone out.

My thoughts went back to our time spent on the private beach together. That day with her was definitely one of the best in my life. That's where we first really discussed our relationship and where it was headed. I know Bella was worried about what her father would think about moving down to Florida, particularly if he knew it was to be closer to me. I'm sure her dad will miss her greatly, but he would let her if she really wanted it.

I turned my head to kiss Bella's cheek. She looked lost in thought while sitting beside me on the sofa. I remembered last night at the club. I can't believe it was only last night. Bella was absolutely stunning in the dress she wore. I could tell that she was sometimes shy and didn't really expect her to dance much while we were there. Of course, I forgot about how Alice and Rose might drag her out on the dance floor with them. I sat at the table with the other guys and watched her dance. The way she moved her body took my breath away. She went from being adorable as she protested going out on the dance floor, to a seductress. It was everything I could do to keep my thoughts from turning impure like most of males in the club. I couldn't stand for that, so I had to make my way over to her on the dance floor. I wanted to show everyone that she belonged to me as I danced with her that night. Of course, her dancing didn't improve the temptation that I was experiencing with her.

We both jumped slightly when Emmett came charging into the living room yelling that dinner was ready. I unwrapped my arm from around Bella and stood up proffering my hand out to her. She took my hand and we made our way into the dining room where everyone had already gathered around the large table.

My mother had outdone herself as usual. She always made wonderful food when it was just the four of us at home; but when she had company over, she turned into Betty Crocker. She had grilled some steaks as the main course. She had baked potatoes and sautéed green beans along with a salad as side dishes. Somehow, she had made time to bake some fresh yeast rolls. Of course, my mother would never have a meal without a dessert, so I looked around and found it toward the end of the table. She had prepared a fourteen layer chocolate cake for dessert. It was one of my favorites and I couldn't wait to have a slice of that later.

We all sat around the table as couples. My mother and father were sitting at one end of the table with Jasper and Alice at the other end. I sat across from Emmett and had Bella to my side. I think all of us were eyeing the food, but we waited as patiently as we could for my father to speak.

Carlisle cleared his voice, "I want to once again extend my welcome to all of you who are staying here for a while. I'm sorry that it's because of a storm, but make this place yours while you're here. Now please enjoy your dinner."

With that said, all of us were reaching and grabbing for the wonderful food my mother had made. We probably looked like a pack of wolves to my parents. Once everyone had some of everything on their plates, we dug in. Emmett's plate was twice as large as everyone else's. He was eating with such gusto that I'm not sure he was taking the time to breathe.

"Thank you Esme for the wonderful meal," Bella spoke up. "You really didn't have to go out of your way to do all of this for us."

I smiled at that thinking that my Bella was the kindest person I have ever met.

"Don't worry, Bella," Esme said. "I really enjoy cooking and I wanted to make a large meal for us. It just means that there's less food that goes to waste if the power goes out."

"Do you think the power will go out?" Bella asked out of curiosity.

"It's something that typically happens," Carlisle answered.

"How long does it stay out?" Rosalie asked. "A few hours?"

Carlisle shook his head, "No, the power crews can't work on getting the power back up until after the storm passes over completely. Then, if there's a massive outage, it could take a while. It could out for a few days up to a week or so."

"A week!" Alice shouted. "How am I going to blow dry my hair or give Bella a makeover?"

I saw Bella grin at the last part. I knew she wasn't fond of playing 'Bella Barbie' as I've heard her refer to it.

"Just be thankful that we're still close enough to town that we have water supplied by the city," Esme told her. "At least we should be able to flush toilets and take showers."

"You mean there are people that can't do that?" Rosalie asked shocked.

"Some of the people around here get their water by a well," Emmett explained. "The wells have to have power to function properly, so those people are left without the benefits that we have with city water."

All of our guests looked shocked at this revelation. I guess it seemed normal to us because we're more familiar with how these things work. Everyone soon settled back in to finishing their plates. Most of us reached over to get second helpings of some of the food before we finished. Dessert was still waiting and I'm pretty sure all of us were anticipating a piece of that cake.

"Who wants dessert?" Esme asked standing and walking over to the cake.

A chorus of shouts followed and she laughed. Esme grabbed a large cake knife and began slicing pieces of the cake. She served each one of us a piece of the cake and sat down with her slice. I watched as everyone, including myself, took a bite of the cake. It was absolutely delicious.

When all of us finished eating, I stood up and grabbed my dishes to take them to the sink. Bella followed me with hers and began filling the sink with water to wash the dishes.

"You don't have to do that, Bella," Esme said when she came in with her plates.

"Please let me help," Bella said. "I really don't mind doing it at all."

"Okay dear," Esme replied with a smile and walked out of the kitchen.

Everyone brought their dishes in to Bella. I remained standing beside her. I figured that I could help dry to dishes and put them all away in the cabinets when she was done washing them. It also allowed me more time in her presence.

Bella smiled at me as she began handing me the cleaned dishes. I dried them off and put them away where they belonged. It was a simple task that we both seemed to enjoy doing together. This was one of those times that I could picture us doing the same thing five years down the road in our very own house. Our roles would have changed from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife. It was a heartwarming thought.

When I finished putting away the last dish, I took Bella's hand and led her into the living room where everyone was deciding on a movie to watch. Since my mother and father were also joining us in here, all the seats were filled except for one large recliner.

I led her over to the recliner and sat down. I pulled her onto my lap and let her get comfortable until a movie was chosen. Jasper finally made the pick, overriding Emmett and Alice's choices. Emmett was trying to have us watch Saw while Alice was going for Sense and Sensibility. Jasper picked Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I think he was trying his best to pick something with action in it for the guys and a little romance for the girls. Everyone settled back when Jasper put the movie in and waited for it to start. Bella snuggled into me further putting her head just under my jaw. I wrapped my arms around her tighter and began watching the movie.

We were only halfway through the movie, when I felt Bella's breathing slow and become deeper. I looked down to see that she had fallen asleep. I smiled and brushed the hair away from her face gently so I wouldn't wake her up.

Looking around the room, I saw that all of the couples were pretty much snuggled up to each other, including my parents. It was nice to see so much love in the same room. I continued watching the movie until it was over and rolling the end credits.

"I'll turn the movie off if you hand me the remote," I whispered to Jasper.

Jasper handed me the remote and went upstairs with Alice trailing behind him. My parents followed them up to go to sleep for the night. I think they were trying to get away from Emmett and Rosalie, who were wrapped up in each other. They were making out heavily and their hands were both roaming each other's bodies. I cleared my throat and they finally broke away from each other. I jerked my head toward the stairs and they got the message. After the two of them had disappeared upstairs, I was left alone with a sleeping Bella.

I used the remote to stop the movie. I wanted to put it away, but it would mean waking her up. I decided that her waking up was inevitable because I would want her to sleep in a bed instead of in my lap for the night.

"Bella," I called softly in her ear. "Wake up."

I felt her stir a little and watched as she blinked her eyes. I smiled warmly at her when her chocolate brown eyes focused on me.

"I always seem to fall asleep during movies," she complained quietly.

"And I thought it was because I made you so comfortable," I joked back.

Bella smiled and got off of my lap surveying the room. "Has everyone gone to bed?"

"Well, everyone has gone to a bed, but I'm not sure if everyone's sleeping," I answered with a smirk.

"Too much information," she said grimacing.

I stepped over to put the movie away before speaking. "Just be glad that the walls aren't paper-thin."

"Well, that's good to know," Bella replied. "At least they won't keep me up at night."

"Come on," I said offering my hand, "let's go to bed."

Bella took my hand and we walked upstairs together. I stopped in front of her door glancing back at mine across the hall from hers. I didn't want to be presumptuous asking her if she wanted to sleep in my room. Bella might get the wrong idea and think that I just wanted physical gratification.

Instead, I took her face in my hands and kissed her until we were both breathing heavily. Instead of stopping, I pushed her gently against the door and moved my lips from her mouth down to her jaw line. I kissed along her jaw line and then down her neck feeling her arch herself against me. She moaned softly and I knew that we were probably getting too carried away.

I slowly kissed my way back up to her earlobe before whispering, "On that note, I bid you good night."

I chuckled softly because Bella's face was a mix of confusion, shock, and something else. Desire, maybe? She shook her head slightly and stood on her toes to give me one more chaste kiss on the lips before turning to go into her room. I watched as her door closed behind her and smiled as I walked into my room for the night.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N This chapter is a little shorter than most of them. Hope you guys continue to enjoy. Thanks for the reviews. SM still owns.

* * *

**Bella POV**

My heart was racing so fast after kissing Edward that I was fairly certain that I would be unable to sleep for hours. I didn't have the will to use Edward's bathroom to brush my teeth before bed, so I grabbed my toiletry bag and walked downstairs to the guest bathroom. After brushing my teeth and splashing some water on my face, I left the bathroom and made my way back to my bedroom. I changed into my pajamas and got into bed. As I laid in bed, I thought about my time spent with Edward. I've enjoyed every second of my time with him. I finally replayed that good night kiss.

I knew that Edward had boundaries that he wasn't willing to cross until after marriage. I supported that even though my hormones didn't. That kiss tonight definitely seemed to hint at his wanting to cross his own boundaries. It was something that I wouldn't want to do regardless of how I might feel about the issue because I never want Edward to regret anything. I had a feeling that if we went too far, he would definitely regret it. Somehow, I was going to have to be strong enough to stop things if they ever get too heated. I'm not sure how I will ever be able to do that, but I had to try if it ever came down to it.

I needed a distraction from thinking of kissing Edward. Those thoughts were getting me more riled up instead of calming me down enough to actually fall to sleep. I got out of bed and grabbed my book out of the bag it was packed in. I settled back into the comfort of bed even further. I could hear a few drops of rain starting to hit the window. I opened up the book and decided to start reading _Pride and Prejudice_ again. I flipped to the first chapter and began reading. Eventually after reading several chapters, I found myself trying to nod off. I marked the page I stopped at, and put the book on the night table next to the bed. I laid back and was asleep in minutes.

I'm not sure what time it was, but I woke with a start. I sat up and heard the wind whistling loudly and rain pounding the house. Everything was pitch black in my room, so I was left without even being able to see where the door was to get out. I was a little scared of staying here in the blackness all by myself, so I carefully got up out of the bed. I held my hands out around me trying to feel for anything in the way as I walked in the direction of where the door to the room should be.

"Shoot," I muttered when I managed to stub my toe near the foot of the bed.

Once I found the door, I opened it and looked around. The power must have gone out because there was absolutely no light cast anywhere around me to help me find my way around the house. I would have tried to go downstairs into the kitchen for a glass of water, but I really didn't think I would be able to make it down all of those stairs in the darkness without falling. It's times like these that I wished that I just carried around a flashlight. It would have been useful to help me get around.

Instead, I carefully walked across the hall and opened the door to Edward's room. I couldn't really make out where anything was in his room in the darkness. I could hear him breathing deeply, so I walked in the direction of that sound keeping my hands out in case I bumped into anything along the way. When I felt the bed under one of my hands, I stopped. I looked down, but it was still too dark to see Edward sleeping there. I wondered for a moment what I should do. I could always go and find his sofa to sleep on. I would still be in the room with him without disturbing his sleep. The thought of being next to him on the bed was enticing though.

I finally made up my mind and whispered, "Edward."

I could hear him shift around on the bed in front of me. "Bella?" he whispered to the darkness.

"I couldn't sleep with the storm outside," I said softly. "I was hoping that maybe I could stay in the room with you tonight."

"Of course you can, love," Edward said reaching his hand out to grasp mine.

He pulled me into the bed with him and I got under the covers and snuggled up to his side. He stroked my hair and hummed a song that sounded very much like a lullaby. The soothing nature of all of this helped me drift off to sleep once again.


	22. Chapter 22

A/N You guys can thank one of my co-workers for this chapter being posted so soon. I was originally going to wait a few more days, but I decided to be nice and post it early. I don't own Twilight, but I still wish I did.

* * *

**Bella POV**

I woke with a start to a shrilling noise going off in the house. I looked around, startled, but the lighting was still so dim that I was unable to see anything around me. I felt Edward sit up next to me.

"What's that?" I asked in a panicked voice.

"It's okay, it's just the weather radio we have downstairs," Edward replied rubbing my back.

"We should get up and see what the warning is about," Edward continued.

He waited for me to scoot off the bed before getting up himself. He then took my hand and helped to lead me to his bedroom door. I saw him bend down next to the door and pick something up. It turned out to be a flashlight as he turned it on and shined the bright beam around us.

"Let there be light," he said chuckling.

"At least now I don't have to worry about falling down the stairs," I commented.

He pointed the beam of light toward the stairs and kept a hold of my hand as he led me down them. Once we reached the bottom level of the house, Edward quickly towed me to the living room where I saw everyone else crowded next to a small white machine that looked similar to an answering machine.

We all listened to the voice coming from the machine as it told us about the hurricane making landfall. I heard a lot of stuff about storm surges and rip tides, but I didn't really know what any of that meant, so I looked around the group to see if any of them were looking worried. I figured that their expressions would probably be my best guide as to whether or not I should freak out.

I noticed that there was one person missing from our group. "Where's Carlisle?" I asked.

"He left a few hours ago to go back to the hospital," Esme answered.

"When will he be back?" I asked hoping that he wouldn't be having to drive during the storm.

"He won't be coming back until after the storm passes over us," she replied.

"What was the alert on the weather radio?" Edward piped up.

"The storm just made landfall about fifteen miles southwest of us," Jasper said calmly.

I still couldn't get over how calm Jasper always seemed to be. I looked over to Alice, who was standing next to him with his hand lightly resting on her shoulder. I thought she would at least be exhibiting some nervousness from all of this, but she seemed to possess the same weird calmness that Jasper had.

"So what do we do now?" Rosalie asked.

"It would probably be best if we stay downstairs for the duration of the storm," Esme said.

"We could go find some small, interior rooms to hide in just in case the weather gets worse," Emmett said.

"That's a good idea," Esme told him, "but we all should find some flashlights first so that we can see where we're all going."

"I'll go get them," Edward told everyone.

I watched as he headed out in the direction of the garage. He was back within minutes with several flashlights and a shopping bag. There were only a total of four flashlights, including the one he already had used to come down the stairs with, so Esme, Jasper, and Emmett received the remaining three. Everyone checked to make sure they were working. In the shopping bag was replacement batteries for them, so each flashlight owner grabbed a package of batteries as a backup.

"Hey Emmett, why don't you grab the little radio that we take camping sometimes?" Edward asked.

"Sure," Emmett replied and went to another part of the house and came back with a tiny radio.

I raised my eyebrow at Edward wondering what that was about.

"We'll have to break up in groups if we're going to stay in small rooms, so this way one group gets to have a weather radio and another one will have the little radio," Edward explained to me.

"Okay, so how are we splitting up, and where are we going to?" Jasper asked the group.

Esme started giving orders. I guess she would be considered the head of the household since Carlisle wasn't at home.

"Emmett, you take Rosalie and go to the storage closet that's down the hallway," she said.

"What about all the junk in there?" he asked.

"I don't care what you do with everything that's in the closet," Esme replied. "You can toss it all into another room for all I care. Just stay in the closet."

"Okay mom," Emmett said.

He grabbed Rosalie's hand and hauled her off in the direction of the closet in question. I could hear Emmett swearing as stuff what being tossed around. I almost went down there to see for myself what he was doing, but Esme's voice brought my attention back to the present task at hand.

"Bella, you and Edward will stay in the bathroom down here. It's fairly large, so you shouldn't be too cramped for space," Esme told me in a motherly voice. "Edward, honey, why don't you go upstairs and gather some pillows and blankets for the two of you."

I watched as Edward took his flashlight and walked back upstairs to gather pillows and blankets.

"You and Jasper will stay in the pantry with me," Esme told Alice. "There's plenty of space for all three of us in there. I'll even grab some more pillows and blankets for us to use so that we're as comfortable as we can be."

Edward came down with a heavy looking pile of pillows and blankets for us. As soon as he reached the bottom, I went over and helped relieve him of some of his bundle.

"Mom, why don't you guys carry the weather radio with you, and we'll have the other radio with us," Edward said.

"Sure," Esme replied. She turned to focus on me and smiled, "Don't worry about a thing, Bella. My son will make sure you're safe."

I nodded since I was unsure how I should respond to that. I followed as Edward led me toward the back of the house where the bathroom his mom had been talking about was located. Before we turned to walk into the bathroom, I looked out one of the windows nearby to see if I could see anything. It was still too dark outside to make anything out. I remembered all the furniture that we had moved into the storage building out there. I guess it was a good thing we did that considering the sounds of the wind and rain I was hearing.

I felt Edward come to stand next to me, which took me out of my train of thought. I looked to him and followed him into the bathroom. He closed the door behind us and took the blankets I had been carrying out of my arms.

I took the flashlight from off the counter where Edward had laid it and shone it around the room. I haven't had the chance to come into this bathroom during my stay here, so I didn't know how big or small the space was. I saw that it was a very large bathroom. So large, in fact, that Edward had enough room to lay out a small air mattress on the floor. He had covered it in a blanket and placed a few pillows near one end of it.

"So, I guess this is like camping?" I asked after looking around at everything.

Edward chuckled, "Except for the weather and not being outside with a fire burning."

I watched as Edward put the radio on the counter and turned it on. He adjusted the frequency until he found a station that was coming in clearly with updates on the storm.

"We might as well settle back and get comfortable because we might be in here a while," Edward told me.

I got comfortable on the air mattress and Edward sat down beside me. I didn't know how long these storms last, so I decided to find out.

"How long exactly will we be in here?"

"Well, it all depends on how fast the storm is moving," Edward answered. "Typically, it could be a few hours."

"Oh," I stated simply.

I couldn't hold back the yawn that broke through. Even with the noise of the storm overhead, I think that I was tired enough to go back to sleep. I was slowly becoming more accustomed to the loud whistling of the wind and the pounding rain.

Edward looked at me and stroked my cheek softly. "You can try to go back to sleep, love."

"What if something happens?" I mumbled as I snuggled into the blanket.

"I'll wake you up if I need to," Edward replied.

I watched as he laid himself down beside me on the mattress. It was so small that there wasn't any way for us to be on it together without being against each other. Edward placed his head on the other pillow and reached over to wrap his arm around me waist bringing me even closer to him than I was before. I felt so safe and complete being there with him that it wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep once again.

I woke up a little disoriented with my surroundings. Edward was sleeping next to me. I guess he had turned the radio off at some point so that he could fall asleep easier. The flashlight had been turned off earlier, so the room was pitch black. I realized that I really needed to use the bathroom. There was no way I was going to use the one we were in. That would just be too weird and embarrassing with Edward in here too.

I slowly got up trying not to disturb Edward's sleep. He moved a little but remained asleep as I got to my feet. I felt around until I found the flashlight that was left on the counter. I decided to wait until I was outside the bathroom to turn it on, so I held my free hand out trying to find my way to the door.

I grasped the doorknob, thankful that I didn't trip over anything along the way. I closed the door behind me and turned the flashlight on. I shined it around me for a moment before finding the staircase and heading upwards. I figured that since I had to go upstairs anyway to use a bathroom, that I might as well use Edward's.

I reached the third floor quickly, and headed in the direction of Edward's bedroom. I noted that the storm had picked up even more since before I fell asleep in the bathroom with Edward. It seemed to be raging outside. I could hear the rain pounding the walls of the house and the wind whistling through the attic beams overhead. The noise was disconcerting for me, but I put aside my worries thinking that someone would have said something if it really was worth worrying over.

I quickly walked into the bathroom and made use of the facilities while leaving the flashlight turned on to give me a little light. After washing my hands, I grabbed the flashlight off the counter and walked back into Edward's bedroom.

I was starting to hear a new sound outside that I didn't recognize. I walked toward the large window in his room to see what it looked like out there. Thankfully, they had only boarded up the windows on the first level of the house, so this one I could at least try to look out of. I looked out the window and could just barely make out the trees being blown so forcefully that they looked like they might snap in half at any second. The rain was coming down in sheets that made it hard to see much of anything else through.

That funny noise was growing louder, so I pressed myself even closer to the glass trying to see where it was coming from. It sounded like a mixture of a loud jet engine or a train. The sound puzzled me and I felt my face scrunch up in confusion trying to think of what it might be coming from.

The door opened with a bang scaring me from my contemplation at the window.

"Bella!" Edward yelled.

"What's wrong?" I asked because he seemed truly frightened.

I heard him mutter "No time" before he grabbed my hand and yanked me out of the room. That strange noise was getting louder and louder as we ran down the stairs. I barely managed to keep up to Edward's fast pace and was sure that at any moment I would trip and fall the rest of the way down.

We reached the bathroom and Edward shoved me in first before he came in a swiftly closed and locked the door. Both of us were panting heavily from the trip down the stairs. I was still confused as to what was going on and why Edward was so panicked all of a sudden. The loud noise bothered me a little but only because I didn't know what it was from.

Once I regained some ability to control my speech, I asked, "What was with the rush downstairs?"

Edward looked at me wide-eyed like I was insane before answering, "You really don't know what a tornado sounds like?"

I felt my mouth fall open. "A tornado? You have got to be joking."

I just watched as Edward nodded solemnly. "Bella, there really is a tornado out there. I don't know how close it is, but the noise from it woke me up. I saw that you weren't in here, so I got up and tried to find you. I can't believe you were on the top floor and looking out the window of all places."

"I just wanted to try to see what was going on out there," I said defensively.

"Why did you go up there anyway?"

"I had to go to the bathroom, so I figured I would just use yours," I grumbled.

"And you didn't want to use the one closest to you?" Edward asked skeptically.

I threw my hands up in the air, "I don't know. At the time I was thinking that your bathroom was the better choice."

Edward shook his head. I think I might have heard him mutter something about "self-preservation" but I couldn't be sure.

"Are we safe now?" I asked in a softer voice. I know Edward didn't mean to, but he made me feel bad for touring the house in the middle of a bad storm.

"It's not over yet," Edward replied. He must have seen the look of anxiety cross my face because the next thing I knew, I was being held in his arms. "It's okay, Bella. I'm going to take care of you. Just don't go running away from me anymore," he said soothingly in my ear.

My ears perked up a bit. "It's getting louder," I stated.

I buried my face into Edward's chest. I could feel him turning his head left and right to look around us. I'm not sure what he was looking for though.

"Bella," Edward said.

I looked up into his eyes instead of verbally responding.

"We should sit down in a corner," Edward told me.

I nodded and Edward led me over to a corner of the bathroom, stopping to turn the radio back on. He sat down first and pulled me down on his lap. He ran his hand through his hair a few times making it look even wilder than it usually does.

I was thankful that I was with Edward during all of this because he was acting really calm and collected for the most part. If it wasn't for him, I would definitely be freaking out. Right now, I was still scared but I could manage with it. I curled myself into him even further. I think my body needed as much comfort as it could get.

Suddenly, the noise became a dull roar around us. I looked up at Edward with wide eyes full of fear as I felt the house around us rattling. Edward looked back at me with worry in his eyes. I didn't know what we could do. I felt like everything was being left up to Fate.

"Just in case," Edward whispered into my ear.

Before I had a chance to question what he meant, I was on the floor. Edward used his body to hover over me. I realized now that he was trying to shield me in case the house really was destroyed around us. I couldn't help the tears that began falling down my cheeks. I wanted to tell Edward not to worry about me, but he had me locked underneath him with my face to the floor. I covered my head and ears hoping that the terrible sounds would stop. I jumped as I heard a loud crash nearby. Edward wrapped himself around me as tight as he could. There was no way I would be able to even move an inch. As much as I loved having him this close, I just wanted everything to be over.

As quick as it came, it was over. I heard nothing but the wind and rain that was going on prior to the tornado. Even those things sounded like they were dying down some.

I felt Edward ease off of me, so I rolled over onto my back. His eyes were still filled with concern, so I stretched a hand out to caress his cheek. He gave me a tentative smile and both of us looked around the room. The bathroom looked the same as it did before. I couldn't see any damage anywhere around me.

"Is it over?" I asked quietly.

Edward closed his eyes and exhaled. "Yes, I do believe the worst is over."

The radio took that opportune moment to finally have an updated weather report come on. "The tropical storm has once again been downgraded to a tropical depression. It continues to move northeast at thirty miles per hour and the eye of the storm is currently located over southwest Georgia," an announcer spoke. "Now back to the music."

Edward and I looked at each other and laughed when the next song they played was "Rock Me Like a Hurricane." I suppose some people would consider that in poor taste due to the current situation around us, but I couldn't help but to find it funny that the people over at the radio station would play _that_ song.

"Love, we should probably go check on everyone," Edward said.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N I still only get to play with the characters.

* * *

**Bella POV**

Now that the storm seemed to have settled down a bit, we both wanted to make sure that everyone in the house was okay. Edward helped me up to my feet and we walked out of the bathroom carefully. Neither one of us was sure as to how much damage the house might have sustained during the storm. I was just glad that it seemed to be over. I could now say that I managed to survive a tornado and a hurricane.

I smiled as I realized that we no longer needed flashlights to help us find the way. The power was still out and I didn't have high hopes of it returning anytime soon, but the sky had lightened up considerably allowing enough natural light in through the windows that weren't boarded up that we could see where we were going.

Emmett and Rosalie were the closest to our location, so we decided to check on them first. Edward held my hand as we walked down the hallway to the closet they were in. I wondered how comfortable it might have been in that closet. Surely, Esme would have thought about this before putting someone as large as Emmett with another person in a tiny space.

When we reached the closet, Edward yanked the door open instead of knocking first. The glimpse I got of the two of them was more than I _ever_ wanted to see in my life.

"Oh!" I said covering my eyes with both hands and turning away from the open door.

"Hey!" Emmett said as Rosalie shouted, "Close the door!"

Edward practically slammed the door shut and ran his hand through his hair. We both managed to see entirely too much of Rosalie and Emmett exposed than we would ever want to. I couldn't imagine how they were doing what they were doing in such a tiny closet. Then again, I don't want to imagine it at all. I just want to put my brain in boiling water hoping that those images will go away.

Edward was muttering something to himself as he turned to walk toward the pantry in the kitchen. I tagged along beside him, still holding his hand. At least we didn't have to worry about what we would find in the pantry since Esme was in there with Alice and Jasper.

The door to the pantry opened up as we reached it. Esme stood in the doorway looking around. I could see Alice huddling up to Jasper in the background. It looked sweet how Jasper seemed to be taking care of her. It reminded me of Edward.

"Are both of you okay?" Esme asked giving each of us big hugs and examining us up and down to make sure that we didn't look injured.

"We're both fine, mom," Edward replied.

"What about Emmett and Rose?"

"They also seem to be fine," Edward answered with a grimace.

"Where are they? Surely they aren't still in that closet?"

"Umm," I began hesitantly. "They seem to be occupied with each other." That seemed to be the best way to phrase what they were doing.

Esme looked at me for a moment before grimacing. "Why don't we go check on any damage around the house? Hopefully, those two will be ready to help in a few minutes."

By this time Alice and Jasper had gotten up and joined us. We split up to survey the interior of the house. Edward and I chose to look over the third floor, since that's where we were staying. After walking upstairs behind Edward, I started heading toward the guest room I was staying in.

Edward linked his arm quickly around my waist and pulled me closer to him. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"I was going to check out the guest room," I said with confusion lacing my voice.

"I don't think so," Edward responded. "I'm not about to let you out of my sight after what happened earlier."

"But just look outside," I argued. "The storm has already passed."

"It doesn't matter," Edward answered back. "I'm still not going to let you go."

I could see the truth shining through his eyes and knew that he wasn't about to back down. I was really only trying to finish the task a little quicker, so I decided not to argue further with him. I followed him into his bedroom.

It was immediately apparent that there was some damage to the room. The window that I had been looking out of earlier this morning was shattered. Shards of glass and debris littered the floor in that area of the room. It made me realize why Edward was so upset with me being up here during the storm. I never really thought about the consequences of what could have happened until now while I'm starring at all of the broken glass.

I carefully walked over to the window trying to avoid stepping on any pieces of glass that might impale my feet. I was finally able to get my first clear view of the exterior. I heard my breath leave me in a whoosh as I saw what could be called a disaster area.

There were trees down all over the yard. I'm pretty sure the loud boom we heard earlier was from an extremely large oak tree that fell on top of the storage room where we had placed all of the outdoor furniture. Good to note that moving the furniture did a whole lot of good, I thought wryly. The rest of the yard had tree branches and debris scattered all over. It was definitely going to be a major cleanup for all of us.

I felt Edward come to stand behind me to take in all of the damage. "I'm so thankful that I got to you in time," he spoke into my ear.

I turned around and looked up into his sad eyes. "It's not your fault that I decided to take a bathroom trip up here in the middle of the storm. It's even less your fault that I was standing right in front of this window as the tornado was heading in our direction. I was too stupid to even realize that what I was hearing was a tornado or even something that I should be concerned about. I just wanted to see what was going on out there," I said.

"Bella, it's not your fault either," Edward spoke softly holding my chin up to meet his gaze. "It's not like you live here and know all about these kinds of storms. You were just naturally curious."

I didn't like him trying to take away the guilt from me. I didn't want to argue with him over something that trivial so I just nodded my head to appease him and hugged him to me. He kissed the top of my head quickly before pulling away. He must have seen the pout cross my face because he laughed and took my hand.

He pulled me out of his bedroom and into the guest room I was staying in to check for any damage in there. Luckily, all the damage on the third floor seemed to be isolated to his room. When we finished checking the floor, we walked back downstairs hand in hand to meet up with the others.

"So what's the verdict?" Emmett asked. I was glad to see that both him and Rosalie were fully dressed.

"We'll have to replace the roof and the storage building," Esme said.

"The window in my room was broken," Edward told her.

"There were two windows on the second floor that we found broken," Alice said.

"Nothing out of place or apparently damaged down here," Emmett said.

"Well, why don't we split up and try to clean up the damage the best we can until I can get someone out here to make the repairs?" Esme suggested.

"Emmett and I can work on taking the plywood off the windows on the bottom floor and use some of it to cover the ones that were broken by the storm," Edward said.

"I can help you guys with that if you want," Jasper offered.

"Sure, we can always use some extra help," Emmett said.

"Besides, we'll probably need to get out the chainsaw to help cut up some of those toppled trees in the yard," Edward added. "We'll cut them up and burn the pieces."

"Wooo, fire," Emmett said grinning and rubbing his hands together like a little kid.

"What is it about guys and fire?" Rosalie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I've been trying to figure that out most of my life and I still can't tell you the answer to that," Esme replied with a smile.

"Well, if the boys are handling the outdoor stuff," I began, "I guess we can work on cleaning up inside."

"Where do you keep the broom and dust pan?" Alice asked Esme.

"I'm surprised you didn't see it last night," Esme responded. "It's behind the door in the pantry."

Alice went to grab the broom and dust pan while the boys went outside to begin their work. I was pretty sure that it was going to take them a lot longer to finish everything than it would for us. All we really had to do was clean up a few rooms where the windows were broken. Once we were done sweeping up the glass and debris, we would be finished inside the house.

Esme found us some extra brooms and dustpans to use to clean up with, so Rose, Alice, and I split up to tackle each of the problem areas while she got on the phone calling up her insurance company as well as various people to come out here and give her a quote for the work that needed to be done.

I was done cleaning up Edward's room in ten minutes and left with nothing to do. I decided that maybe I could help the guys outside do something. I was about to head downstairs when I thought that it might be better to try to call Charlie and let him know that everything is fine here. I knew he would probably be worried. Even I knew that they put stuff like this on the news for everyone to watch. Charlie doesn't normally watch anything on television except for sports, but he would still hear about something like this from the guys down at the police department or someone around town.

I walked into the guest room and found my phone laying on the night table beside the bed where I had left it yesterday. I scrolled through the numbers until I found the one for home and dialed. Charlie must have been practically sitting next to the phone because he picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?" he said gruffly.

"Hey dad," I responded.

"Bella, are you okay?" Charlie asked quickly.

I could tell that he was more than a little worried. "Dad, calm down, I'm fine."

"I saw those news reports," Charlie said. "They showed all the damage down there."

"Dad, I promise that I'm perfectly okay."

"What about the Cullen's house?"

"Well, there was some damage here," I told him honestly. "They're going to have to replace the roof on the house and a storage building got smashed by a big tree that fell on it."

"Well, at least everyone's okay, right?"

"Yes, everyone is fine, dad."

"I heard there were tornadoes in that area, too."

"I think that's what actually did most of the damage to the house. Edward kept me in a bathroom on the bottom floor with him during the storm for that very reason."

"Edward, huh."

"Yes, Edward," I said grimacing a little on my end.

"So, when are you coming home?" he asked bypassing on any further talk of Edward.

"I'm not sure when I'll be able to get a flight out of here, but I'll call as soon as I have one booked."

"Okay, Bells," Charlie said. "You take care."

"I will dad."

"Bye Bella."

"Bye dad."

I hung up the phone and sighed in relief. That wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Even though he was worried, he seemed to calm down pretty quick after I told him that everything was fine here.

I laid the phone back down on the night table and made my way downstairs. Rose and Alice were already down there sitting on the sofa. I saw Esme through the entryway into the kitchen on the phone. I suppose she still had a lot of calls to make in order to get everything repaired around here.

"Hey Bella," Alice called cheerfully when she saw me enter the room, "I booked us tickets to fly back."

"How on earth did you manage to do that so fast?" I asked shocked. I also didn't want to leave, but decided not to say anything about that to her.

"While I was cleaning, I decided to call up the airport and see what they had available," Alice told me. "It turns out that they have some empty spots in a couple days, so I went ahead and booked us two tickets to fly back then."

I tried to smile normally as I thanked Alice for thinking of booking our flights back. I think she saw through me though. All I could think of now was that two days was not nearly enough time to be around Edward.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N Once again, thanks for all of the reviews. Thanksgiving is coming up this week, and I'll be on location somewhere without internet access. Unfortunately for you guys, that means I won't be able to update while I'm away. I'll try to get as much updated before I leave, but I'll be working on this during the holiday, so you should get frequent updates afterwards. Still don't own Twilight.

* * *

**Bella POV**

The time had flown by until now I was once again on my way to the airport with all my luggage. I was trying to keep from crying the whole time because I was going to miss Edward so much. The night before, I was so distraught that I couldn't sleep in my room all alone. Instead, I crawled into Edward's bed in the middle of the night. He wrapped me up in his arms as I curled into him and I finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

I was already missing the warmth of those arms. How am I ever going to manage to be without him for such a long period of time before I can officially move down here. I'd already made up my mind about the moving issue. I was going to tell Charlie that I was moving and hope for the best. Even if he disapproved of it, I was still coming back to Florida. I just really hoped that he understood enough to let me go and really begin living my own life. It was time for me to break out from under the wings of my parental figure.

Edward stopped the car in the airport short-term parking lot. He got out of the car and opened my door for me like he usually does. The whole ride had been quiet for both of us. We both seemed to be dreading what was coming. Edward grabbed my bags from the trunk and walked with me into the airport.

I got into line at the ticket counter to receive my ticket that Alice had booked and to check my luggage. I didn't like to deal too much with hauling luggage through the airport. Edward stayed by my side the entire time. He would smile every time I looked up at him, but I could tell that he was just trying to make me feel better. The smile never reached his eyes.

The lady at the counter handed me my ticket and took my luggage away for me. I turned away from the line and we started walking toward the terminal that I would be taking off from. Of course, security was up first, and Edward wouldn't be allowed past that point without having a ticket himself. We stopped near the security area, but far enough away that we could still a little bit of a private bubble around us.

"When does your flight leave?" Edward asked.

"In about an hour," I told him. "They'll probably start boarding in thirty minutes."

"I'm going to miss you," Edward told me.

"I'll miss you, too," I replied back.

I could feel a single tear escape the corner of my eye. Before I could wipe it away, Edward had reached up and wiped it for me with his thumb.

"Don't worry, love, we won't be apart for long," Edward told me as he hugged me to him.

"It's going to seem like forever though," I said into his shirt.

"Yes, but just look forward to when you can move down here," Edward responded.

"I really hope I don't have to fight Charlie over it."

"Don't worry, everything will work out."

"How can you be so sure?" I asked.

I felt Edward smile. "Never bet against Alice."

I laughed lightly. "Did she say anything to you?"

"She told me not to worry about anything, so I'm planning to do my best to be as upbeat as I can with you across the country," Edward said.

I nodded my head feeling a little bit more optimistic, though not by much.

"I hate to say it, but you should probably get going," Edward spoke softly.

I looked up, meeting his eyes for the first time in several minutes. I could see the love shining through them. I stood up on my toes to give him a kiss before I left. Edward brought his hands up to cup my face as he kissed me back. Our mouths moved in sync with each other. As much as I would have loved for it to be even more passionate, we were still in a public airport. I didn't relish the thought of so many people staring at us.

I pulled back and gazed into Edward's beautiful green eyes once again. He leaned forward to kiss my forehead.

"I love you," Edward said.

"I love you, too."

"You'll call me when you get there?"

"Of course I will," I told him.

We kissed again and then I was left with making my way through security and to the gate that the flight was leaving from. I turned once and waved at Edward, who was still standing in the same spot I left him at. He waved back and I forced myself to keep walking toward my gate. I swallowed and fought the tears once again.

When I made it to the gate and saw Alice hanging out with Jasper. I remembered that his and Rose's flight was scheduled to leave a little later in the day today. I suppose he came early in order to say goodbye to Alice.

I envied both couples. Alice was coming back here in a couple weeks with all of her belongings. Esme offered a room in their house until she found a place of her own. Jasper was going to be back down here at about the same time as well to get ready for the start of a new semester. Just this morning, Rose had received a phone call from one of the companies she had been interested in. They were very enthusiastic about her coming to work for them. Rosalie was going home for a few weeks to get all of her affairs in order before also moved back down here. Of course, that would mean that her relationship with Emmett would blossom even further than it already had.

I suppose that really I was in the same boat because I was planning on moving down here as well. Still, it just didn't seem as perfect as the others. I guess it was because I didn't want to leave Charlie on a bad note. I was so desperate for his approval in my decision. I'm not sure if I was being a little childish by wanting it so badly. I just really felt that a nod from him would help make everything even closer to perfect for me. Of course, I would also love for Charlie to meet Edward some day. I want the two men in my life to like each other. I didn't really foresee a time when Edward might meet Charlie, so it wasn't something I was going to worry about for now.

Alice finally said goodbye to Jasper when it our turn to board the plane. I looked away from their direction at the time and just got in line. They were so much in love that it was hard for me to look at them without having Edward by my side.

The flight back was long and uneventful. I tried to sleep for the most part, but it was hard coming. Thoughts of Edward and I together kept cropping up making me somewhat depressed to be without him.

Charlie was there to meet us at the airport. He helped Alice with her bags since I really didn't have much luggage with me. We both got into his police car. I still haven't quite grown accustomed to riding around with him in that car. Particularly now that I'm riding in the back seat while Alice is up front with Charlie. He always did had a special place in his heart for her. We dropped Alice off at her house and I seized the opportunity to take the passenger seat.

We didn't talk much on the way home. When we arrived at my home, I grabbed my bags and followed Charlie inside the house. I went upstairs and unpacked everything, separating it into piles of what was dirty and clean. Afterwards, I took one load downstairs to start the laundry.

It was getting close to dinner time and I knew Charlie probably hadn't been eating very well lately since I was gone, so the next thing I did was head into the kitchen to check out what I could use to fix a nice meal for him. I figured that a satisfying meal might do the trick to soften him up a bit before I bite the dust and discuss my moving to Florida.

I found some beef in the freezer and all the ingredients I needed to make some spaghetti using a homemade meat sauce. I figured that Charlie would appreciate the meal. I added some garlic bread and a salad to complete the meal.

"Something smells good, Bells," Charlie said coming into the kitchen as I was finishing up.

"I thought you could use a nice home-cooked meal," I replied. "I bet you've been eating at the diner every night since I've been gone."

Charlie just grunted instead of answering, but I knew that it confirmation enough of what I'd just said. I served us both some of the meal and we sat down together at the small table in the kitchen. I allowed Charlie to eat without bothering him with what I had to tell him. Truthfully, I was stalling for as long as I could.

"Well, Bells, dinner was great," Charlie said as he finished up.

"Thanks," I replied.

He was about to stand up from the table and I knew that I might miss my opening.

"Hey dad, can I talk to you about something?" I asked hesitantly.

"Sure kiddo, you can talk to me about anything."

I knew he didn't mean that literally. There were some things that I would _never_ discuss with my father, and I don't think he would ever want me to mention it to him either.

"Well, I've been thinking," I began. "While I was in Florida, I found some really good material to use for my book. It seems like a good location for me to be inspired."

What he didn't know was that my inspiration all came from Edward. I wasn't planning on telling him that.

"What exactly are you getting at?"

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I want to move there."

"You want to move there," Charlie repeated slowly. "Well, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not crazy about this idea. You'll be practically all the way across the country from me and living by yourself. I also hate to think of you leaving. I'll miss you."

I just nodded my head. That was one of the lengthiest responses I've ever gotten out of Charlie. He doesn't normally show much emotion, which is fine with me. Tonight, he was actually showing how much he loved and cared for me. It was heartwarming.

"Dad, you know I'm going to miss you as well. Esme invited me to stay with them until I found a place on my own. I'm sure I could get them to help me find something that's in a safe neighborhood so that you won't have to worry about anything."

"Well, that was nice of her to offer you a place to stay," Charlie said. "You know that I'm still going to worry about you regardless of how safe your new place might be. It's my job to worry."

"I suppose so," I said smiling.

"When exactly were you thinking about leaving?"

"In two weeks if that's okay with you?"

"Sure honey," Charlie said. "Just don't forget about me while you're soaking up the sun down there."

"You know I could never forget about you, dad," I told him as I stood up and went over to give him a big hug.

After the emotion-fest was finished, Charlie went into the living room to watch a game on the television. I put the load of laundry that I had been washing into the dryer and went upstairs to put away the rest of my clothes. When I finished with all the laundry, I decided to take a shower and head to bed for the evening. It was a little early still, but I was tired from traveling most of the day. My head hit the pillow and I was asleep within minutes.

The next couple of days followed along slowly. I caught up on all the house cleaning duties that hadn't been done since I left on vacation. It made me wonder about the state of the house when I officially moved away. Hopefully, Charlie will scrub the shower at least twice a month.

Edward and I talked on the phone every night before bed. His residency was going to start next week, and he seemed to be a little nervous about it. I tried to calm him and put all of his fears to rest as much as I could. Of course, he was overjoyed when I gave him the good news about how Charlie accepted my moving down there. I told him that I was planning on moving in a couple weeks, and he was already spouting off all kinds of plans on where he should take me that we never had a chance to go to. I had to remind him on occasion that he was going to be really busy doing for a while until he finished up his residency, but I'm not sure he was really listening to my logic. I knew that he would be tired from the long hours and weird shifts that he would probably end up having to do at the hospital.

It was finally Friday morning and I was up early. It was a rare sunny day in Forks, so I was contemplating how I could take advantage of the day. I had just finished giving the bathroom a thorough cleaning when I heard the doorbell ring.

I ripped off my gloves and put away the cleaning materials as quickly as I could. I ran down the stairs, almost tripping halfway down. I managed to avoid the near disaster and reached the door before the doorbell could ring a third time.

I opened up the door and my eyes went wide when I saw who was standing before me.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N Okay, so I'm back from Thanksgiving. I don't think any of you were entirely too upset with the cliffhanger from last chapter, but I don't have any plans on doing that to you guys again any time soon. I still don't own Twilight-I just play with the characters.

* * *

**Edward POV**

Even before Bella had left our house to return to Forks, I was planning. There was nothing that I wouldn't do for Bella. I knew that she wanted to move down here but was afraid of what her father would think about the idea. I decided that regardless of what her father said about the idea, I could always speak to him myself as well. I'm pretty sure that he would like to hear what I had to say about the prospect of her moving. I knew that talking to him over the phone probably wouldn't cut it, so that's why I was now behind the wheel of a rental car driving to Bella's house.

I wanted it to be a surprise for her as well, so every night when I was talking with her I kept my trip to myself. I wanted to see the look on her face when she opened the door to me. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to stay here long with her. I actually had to be back home sometime Sunday evening in order to prepare for my first day on the job at the hospital.

A few minutes later, I was pulling up in front of her house. I wanted to be clever about finding out where she lived. That didn't quite work the way I expected though because I didn't have a shred of evidence that I could use to find the house on my own. Instead, I had to stop at a gas station and ask for directions. It was lucky for me that Forks was a small town and everyone knew where the police chief lived.

I slowly walked up to the front door. It was still pretty early in the morning and I was unsure as to whether or not I might wake her up. I decided to just bite the bullet and ring the doorbell. As soon as the chime had finished ringing throughout the house, I could hear movement. I figured that someone must have been awake. I knew it was Bella when I heard someone stumble down the stairs. It brought a smile to my face as I imagined her endearing clumsiness.

The door opened up before me and I saw her standing in front of me once again. I watched her glance up at me. The surprise showed all over her beautiful face as her eyes got wide and her mouth dropped open.

"Edward!" Bella gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Am I not allowed to visit?" I asked smirking.

"Of course you are! I just didn't know you were even thinking about coming."

"I thought it might be nice to visit once before I get too busy with work," I replied.

"Oh sorry, I bet you want to come in," Bella said opening the door wider to allow me entry.

"Sorry, it's not much," Bella continued after I had walked a few steps into her living room.

I looked around at the small quarters. They didn't have all those little decorative touches that my mother had around our house. Everything was neat and in place.

"I bet it feels like home though," I told her smiling warmly.

"You're right, it does," she said with a nod of her head. "I don't think I could ever quite imagine living in a house the size of yours if it was just me and my dad. I think the house would just feel too empty with only the two of us there."

"I know what you mean," I affirmed remembering how nice it was when the house was so crowded with our new friends.

"So, where's your dad?" I asked.

"I think he's probably down at the station," Bella answered.

"So I guess he stays busy down there all day," I ventured.

Bella laughed. "Hardly. Sometimes he'll come home and tell me how many games of poker he won that day."

"Living the quiet life," I quipped.

Bella snorted. "Yea, it's so quiet that there's nothing to do around here."

"So what would you like to do today?" I asked.

"I know just the thing," Bella responded brightly. "Let me just put some cleaning stuff away and get ready."

"Okay, take your time," I told her knowing that she would probably rush around regardless.

I watched as she rushed up the stairs and took a right at the top. While Bella was getting ready, I took my time taking in the room I was standing in. I saw some pictures lining the mantel, so I walked over and perused them. I'm sure Bella didn't like the fact that her dad had every single school picture she had taken lined up here for anyone to see. Bella looked absolutely adorable with her hair up in pigtails and a wide grin on her face.

I turned away before Bella could catch me looking at the pictures of her. I ventured into the kitchen. There was a little window in the kitchen that I looked out of to see what the view was like. I guess it was customary of Forks, because everywhere I looked, all I saw were trees and more trees. I remembered Bella telling me about the weather here, so I was actually a little surprised that the sun was out today.

I turned back around and glanced around the kitchen. It was small like the rest of the house I had seen, but I could imagine Bella working in here to prepare all the meals for her and Charlie. Everything was clean throughout the house. I'm guessing that was due to Bella. She had said that she was in the middle of cleaning something when I arrived this morning.

I heard Bella start down the stairs. "Edward?" she called uncertainly.

"I'm in the kitchen, love," I told her smiling.

I walked back toward the living room before she had the chance to go searching too far for me. Bella was dressed casually in a pair of skinny jeans and a blue long-sleeved button down shirt. I really did love the color blue on her. It made her skin look even creamier than it already was.

"Oh, there you are," Bella said smiling when she turned around to face me.

"So what's on the agenda?" I asked.

"Well, since it's one of our rare sunny days, I thought I would take you sight-seeing," Bella answered.

"Sight-seeing?" I asked with a grin.

"Well, as close to sight-seeing as you can get in Forks," Bella amended.

"Lead the way," I said.

I walked out of the front door with Bella. Even though I told her to lead the way, I was planning on driving her around all day long. When I saw her turn toward an old decrepit truck, I tugged on her arm to bring her back to my side.

"You can just tell me where to go," I told her when we reached my rental car.

"What's wrong with me driving?" Bella asked crossing her arms.

"Nothing is wrong with you driving," I told her. "I just can't bear the thought of you driving that piece of rusty metal over there."

"Hey, don't knock the truck."

"Just let me know if you ever want an upgrade," I said smiling. "I would be perfectly happy buying you a nice car."

"Just don't hold your breath for that to happen," Bella replied smiling back.

"Okay, so where to?" I asked.

"I think we'll go La Push first," Bella replied.

Bella gave me directions to La Push. It was only about ten minutes away from her house. Well, that was since I was actually obeying the speed limit the whole time. I didn't want to make a bad first impression on her dad if I happened to get pulled over for speeding in his town. Particularly, if Bella was in the car with me when it happened.

I pulled up onto the edge of a rocky beach where Bella pointed. We both got out of the car and I walked over the her side.

"I come here on occasion to relax," Bella told me grabbing my hand. "When I was in high school, groups of us would come here to surf and have a cookout."

"You surf?" I questioned with my eyebrow raised. I couldn't imagine her surfing.

"Umm, no," Bella responded. "I just watched others surf. I think I'm a bit too uncoordinated to actually try it myself."

"Well, if you ever wanted to try it, I could always help you," I offered.

Bella smiled up at me, "Thanks for the offer. I might take you up on that one of these days."

We walked hand in hand up and down the pebble beach for a while talking and watching the waves. Occasionally, we would sit down on the beach to rest and enjoy the beauty of the nature surrounding us. I watched as a huge bird dove down into the water and came up with a fish in its mouth.

When the sun rose to its highest perch in the sky, Bella turned to me. "It's about time for lunch. Are you hungry?"

I hadn't thought about food the whole time I was with Bella, but once she mentioned lunch, I realized that I was ravenous. "I'm starved."

"Great!" Bella said standing up and grabbing my hand to help pull me up. "There's this little diner that everyone loves in town. I thought I would take you out to it, so you can enjoy some local food."

"Just tell me where to go," I told her.

A few minutes later, I was pulling into the parking lot for the diner she mentioned. I could tell without her having said it earlier that this place was popular. Of course, it might have been the only place in town, but I decided not to ask about that particular aspect.

I quickly got out of the car and opened the passenger door to help Bella out as well. We walked hand in hand to the front door, which I opened allowing her to enter first. I watched as Bella scanned the room for a moment, before grabbing my hand and leading me to a table. I wasn't sure where we were headed because I couldn't see a free table in the entire restaurant.

Bella stopped in front of a table that only held a man in a police uniform. My breath caught as I realized that this was probably her dad I was standing before. All of those long thought-out speeches flew right out the window now. The man stopped eating his burger and put it back down on his plate. I watched as he looked from Bella to me and then down to our intertwined fingers.

"Bella, who might this young man be?" Charlie asked.

"Dad, this is Edward," Bella introduced. "Edward, this is my dad."

"The Edward from Florida?" Charlie asked.

I held my hand out to shake his. "Hi, I'm Edward Cullen. I believe you talked with my mom, Esme, over the phone while Bella was staying with us."

Charlie nodded his head as he shook my hand. "I didn't know you were coming up here to visit."

I ran a hand through my hair in nervousness. Maybe I should have said something instead of just showing up the way I did. "Well, I wanted it to be a surprise."

Charlie chuckled. "Stop being so nervous, boy. Come sit down and eat."

I smiled and grabbed a chair across from Charlie but beside Bella. I wanted to at least have the comfort of being able to touch her under the table if I chose to do so.

"So what should I order?" I asked both of them.

"I usually get a burger and some fries," Charlie said.

"You can always try a buffalo burger or a moose burger," Bella teased.

The waitress came over and took our orders. I decided to try something new so I ended up ordering a buffalo burger much to the surprise of both Charlie and Bella. I think Bella ordered a spinach salad. We both sat back and made conversation as we waited for our food to arrive.

I found that I really enjoyed Charlie. I was nervous at first about meeting him since he was the chief of police. I guess I thought he would be really uptight and automatically not like me at all. I'm glad that I had that kind of misconception of him. He was really good-natured and I could tell he cared infinitesimally about his only daughter. We didn't really share a whole lot in common with each other, but I followed sports well enough through Emmett that I could keep up a decent conversation with him. Fishing also seemed to be a big passion of his. Of course, I had to admit to him that I had never been deep-sea fishing even though I lived next to the ocean. I decided that one of these days I would fly Charlie down to Florida and give him a chance to go do that.

Bella just watched the two of us with a smile on her face as she ate her salad. I knew she was happy to see both of us get along with each other. I placed my hand on her knee under the table and gave her a smile while continuing to chat with Charlie.

After lunch was over, Charlie stood up. "You two have fun today. I'll be home around five. Maybe we could have another chat then, Edward."

"Sure, I look forward to it," I told him as he clapped me on the back and walked out the door of the diner.

I paid for our lunch and Bella and I hopped back into my car. "Where to?" I asked.

"I know this place where we can relax for a while before we have to be home," Bella answered mysteriously.

"Just tell me where to go," I told her.

Bella directed me down the road for a while before she told me to pull off. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she just said, "There's a trail."

We got out of the car and Bella led the way. Instead of taking the trail, she started into the forest in a different direction. "Bella, we're not taking the trail?"

"I said there was a trail, not that we were going to use it," Bella answered. "Oh, don't look so worried. I'm not going to get you lost."

I chuckled because she seemed to read my mind. I actually was worried that we were about to get lost in the woods. I followed Bella as we trekked through the forest. We might have gone about a half-mile into the forest before Bella led me into an open meadow.

I walked up behind Bella and wrapped my arms around her. "You really know how to amaze me."

Bella turned around to face me while my arms stayed locked around her. "I do?" she asked arching an eyebrow.

"You know you do," I told her leaning down to kiss her on the lips.

We sat down in the damp grass and just gazed at each other. Occasionally, there would be a caress to the face or a light kiss. It was a perfect way to spend the day with Bella. It wasn't long before the light of the day began to fade.

We finally got up and and began walking back to where I had parked the car. It seemed to take less time to get back to the car in comparison with how long it took to get to Bella's meadow in the first place. I drove us back to Bella's house. I was wondering if it would be okay for me to stay there while I was here. I didn't want to presume anything, but I wasn't sure how to even phrase a request like that without sounding presumptuous.

I pulled up in front of Bella's house. I could see that her dad was already home since his police car was parked in the driveway. I got out of the car and opened Bella's door for her once again. We walked up to her front door holding hands. She opened the door for me and greeted Charlie.

"Hey dad, I'm going to get started on dinner," she said.

"Take your time," Charlie said. "I think Edward and I are going to go for a walk."

"Wait, what?" Bella asked poking her head out from the kitchen where she had already started pulling items from the refrigerator.

"Don't worry, honey," Charlie assured her. "I just wanted to chat a bit more with Edward. I figured that you can take your time cooking dinner this way."

I'm pretty sure that Charlie had an ulterior motive for wanting to take a walk with me, but decided not to worry about anything. Bella seemed assured by her father that everything was going to be fine. I turned and followed Charlie back out the door after giving Bella a slight wave.

We walked down the street for a while before Charlie began talking. "I know what you did for Bella during the storm, Edward, and I just wanted to thank you for taking care of her."

"I just did what I needed to do to keep her safe," I replied surprised by the turn of conversation.

"I know that," Charlie said. "I also know you love her. There's no other reason why I could imagine a young man flying all the way up here to surprise a woman and meet her father for the first time. That's especially true when the same young man has to be back home in a couple days to begin his residency."

I stared flabbergasted that he knew everything. "How?"

"I may be from a small town, but I still know how to find out everything about someone my daughter wants to date," Charlie responded. He ducked his head and chuckled. "And I might have talked to your mom after lunch. By the way, you can stay with us while you're here. Granted, you're going to be sleeping on the couch downstairs, and I better not hear any funny business going on the whole time."

"Thank you," I said honestly. "I really do appreciate your hospitality."

Charlie hesitated for a moment as we turned around to walk back toward the house. "I hope I'm not overstepping my boundaries as a father by asking, but what exactly are your intentions towards my daughter. I'm really okay with her moving down there even if she claims it's not for you. I just don't want to see her go through all of the effort and then get her heart broken."

I thought about his question and decided that I really needed to be as honest as possible with him to ease his mind. "Right now our relationship is in too early of a stage for me to tell that I want to marry Bella. I can honestly say that the thought has crossed my mind on occasion, but I think it would be unwarranted to do anything about it until after we've been together for a little while. I will tell you that I love your daughter more than myself and would do anything for her. I want her to be happy, and I'm hoping and praying that my schedule during my residency won't be a deterrent for her."

Charlie stopped and looked me in the eye. "I believe you, son. When you do get around to proposing to my girl, give me a call ahead of time. You already have my permission, I just want to find out before she does."

I smiled, "You have my word on that Chief Swan."

"Call me Charlie."

We walked back inside the house a few minutes later. I could smell something delicious wafting out from the kitchen. Both of us walked into the kitchen to find Bella putting the last plate down on the table. Bella had cooked some fish along with a couple different vegetables and plated them up on three plates. She seemed relieved when she saw both Charlie and I looking happy as we walked in. I sat down between them and enjoyed one of the best meals I've had in a while.

The rest of my stay went by quickly. Saturday was spent mostly indoors because it had begun raining overnight. I enjoyed every second of my time with Bella before it was time for me to return to Florida. This second goodbye was tearful, but both of us were somewhat pacified by the fact that we would be seeing each other for good in a couple weeks. Charlie had agreed with me that Bella should stay in our home in Florida instead of worrying about finding an apartment and living by herself. He knew that I wouldn't be around as much as I wanted to be, so it would be nice for her to be around other people she knew all the time. As I got on my flight, I smiled knowing that everything seemed to be working out just as I had hoped.


	26. Chapter 26

A/N We're winding down in the story, so I hope all of you have enjoyed everything so far. SM is great for creating such wonderful characters to play with.

* * *

**Bella POV**

**Six Months Later**

The past six months seem to have flown by. I moved into the Cullen's house a couple weeks after Edward's visit to Forks. It turned out that as I was moving into their house, everyone else seemed to be doing the same thing. Rosalie and Jasper left their apartment in Texas to move in with the Cullen clan a week before I arrived. Alice had moved in a couple days prior to my initial arrival. Apparently, Esme and Carlisle loved having a house full of people. I think all of us were intending on moving somewhere on our own at some point, but nobody was even bothering to search out places to live. I think we all enjoyed spending our time together.

You would think that with all of us living under the same roof that I would never have any time left for me to really work on my writing. Luckily for me, I managed to be able to work every single day on it because everybody was usually gone during the day to their respective jobs. I could easily get a lot of writing done in a single day, and it was wonderful watching my book progress.

Everything just seemed to work out for me from that point on. The book I had been working on for months finally seemed to just write itself. It was finished a few weeks after I moved to Florida. I was really proud of the finished product. It might have been something that was started in college, but most of the work really seemed to come during my time spent in Florida. Those new life-changing experiences would be something that I will always cherish.

The publishing company loved the book so well that it was released as quick as they could get it printed. The books flew on the shelves and then people started buying them. Somehow, I had been an overnight success story. I was told to go on a book tour. At first I was hesitant to do so, but Edward talked me into it. He thought I should take the opportunity to travel around while I could. Since he wasn't able to spend much time with me because of his work schedule, I decided to follow his advice.

I've been back from the tour, which thankfully only lasted a short period of time, for a total of two days. Yesterday when I arrived back home, I went to bed and did nothing but sleep after greeting everyone here. I was exhausted from all the traveling. I've decided that one book tour might be all I ever do again. It's just too exhausting traveling place to place with that kind of frequency.

Today is a better day though. I've finally gotten plenty of rest and I get to see Edward for more than a passing minute or two. He's actually planning a special evening out for us, and I've been looking forward to it ever since he told me when I got home yesterday. Alice and Rose are even planning to help me get ready for tonight. I decided to try not to fuss about the whole Bella Barbie business because I really want to look my best for him.

Our relationship has really blossomed over the past six months. I worried a little about how his schedule might affect us at first. Then I realized that when two people want something enough, everything will work out one way or another. It helped that my schedule was really flexible. When he came home late at night, I would wait up for him with a little meal ready for him to eat before he went to sleep. We might not have had a lot of time to spend with one another, but we managed to spend every second of the time that we did have together.

I guess that we really haven't talked much about marriage or anything of that nature. It's not like I haven't discussed it because I don't want that for us, because I can truthfully say that Edward is definitely the man I want to marry. I just never thought to bring the topic up when I was with Edward. We usually have so little time together that I don't want to mar that with talk of something that we might not see eye to eye on. Tonight might be a good night to bring the subject up though. We would have the whole evening together, and marriage is something that I'm building up to. I just hope he feels the same way.

I glanced at the clock when I heard a door opening and closing downstairs. It was a little past one in the afternoon, so I knew that it must be Rose and Alice. They claimed they needed at least 3 hours to get me looking perfect for the night.

It was less than a minute later before they burst into my room. Alice was equipped with a bag full of makeup and hair salon products while Rose was wielding a garment bag and a shoe box.

"Please tell me that you guys did not just go shopping?" I asked in a slightly whiny voice.

"Bella, just hop in the shower so we can make you beautiful," Rosalie said in her no-nonsense voice.

I quickly obeyed and hopped in the shower. I saw her get mad once at Emmett because he accidentally put a scratch on her car. Ever since then I do anything and everything that she tells me to do. I never want to be on her bad side. I was actually worried at the time that Emmett might not survive the night.

When I finished rinsing off, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself up in a towel. I didn't bother putting underwear on because I knew that Alice and Rose would already have some picked out. I'm sure it would be a matching set of something or another, since they were adamant that underwear should not only match, but look sexy at the same time. I usually just nod my head and put on whatever they tell me to wear. It's not like anyone will see it after all.

Edward still kept up his boundaries in our physical relationship. Every once in a while, I would try to push his limits a bit, but I he always manages to keep control of the situation much to my dismay. He insists that we should be married before we sleep together. I know that it's probably the right thing to do. I sometimes think that we're backwards because typically it's the girl who doesn't want to go too far in the relationship. Of course, sometimes Edward does make me feel like a criminal who wants to steal his virtue.

"Here's what you're wearing tonight," Alice told me when I stepped into the bedroom.

She held up an emerald green dress that was stunning to say the least. I didn't even complain once as I put the dress on. It accentuated all the high points on my body and flowed freely to just about mid-thigh. Rosalie then showed me the matching shoes. I gaped as I saw how high the heels were.

"I'm going to trip in those things," I said pointing at the shoes.

"You'll be fine," Alice assured me. "Trust me."

I grumbled a little more but knew that I would end up wearing the stupid shoes. Rose hauled me into the bathroom where she sat me down on a stool and began working on my hair. Alice joined us and started putting makeup on me. I just sat back, closed my eyes, and went to my happy place until it was over.

Alice tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. "Okay, we're finished."

I looked in the mirror and smiled at my reflection. "You guys did a great job. Thanks," I told them happily.

"Well, we want to make sure Edward's eyes pop out when he sees you," Rosalie said.

Rose handed me some earrings and a matching necklace to wear with the dress. "This will help complete the look," she told me.

"We know you don't like anything too bulky, so we found something small and light just for you to wear tonight," Alice explained.

"Thank you," I replied sincerely. "You really shouldn't have though."

They both waved me off and left the room as I put the jewelry on to complete the look. I thought that I definitely looked pretty good tonight after Alice and Rose helped get me ready. I hoped Edward thought so too. He had to work today, but was going to be off work early. He was being secretive about where we were going, so I hoped that I was dressed appropriately. I was supposed to meet him downstairs around five o'clock. He mentioned something in passing about wanting there to be a little daylight left for where he was taking me.

I decided to stop thinking about it any further before I gave myself a headache. I glanced at the clock in my bedroom to see that it was nearly five already. I figured that I might as well go downstairs. If Edward wasn't ready yet, then I could just wait in the living room for him.

I opened the door and walked out into the empty hallway carefully. I was still a little unsure about the state of me wearing these shoes that Alice and Rose had picked out. I held onto the banister firmly as I took each step down the stairs. Being careful might help me not land in the emergency room tonight. It would be awful if Edward had to spend some of his time away from work at the hospital taking care of me.

I finally made it to the last few steps and looked up. Edward was standing before me looking as handsome as ever. He was wearing a charcoal grey button-down shirt with a pair of black pants. When I finally managed to stop ogling him, I noticed that he was still staring up at me. I couldn't decipher his expression and nervously tapped my hand against the banister.

Edward held his hand out to help me down the last few stairs. "You look absolutely stunning," he said into my ear when I was on the same level as him.

I blushed at the compliment. "You're looking pretty handsome yourself," I said smiling.

Edward walked me out to his car, which was already parked in front of the house. He helped me into the passenger seat before getting behind the wheel and driving us to the secret destination.

I was expecting an expensive restaurant or maybe a Broadway play. What I did not expect was for Edward to bring me back to the private beach that we had spent time at so many months ago. With our hectic schedules, we had never been back here since that first time we had come for a picnic.

It was twilight as Edward helped me out of the car at the beach. I decided that I wasn't going to take one step further with my shoes on, so I bent down to take them off. Besides, it feels so wonderful to walk through the sand in bare feet. Edward smirked as he watched me take my shoes off, but he then took his shoes and socks off as well and left them next to mine.

We walked hand in hand through the white sandy beach to the edge of where the waves were rolling in. Edward had rolled his pants legs up a little to keep them from getting wet from the salty water splashing in.

After walking a little ways, I finally broke our comfortable silence. "I'm so glad to come back here. It's so beautiful and serene."

Edward looked down at me smiling, "I wanted to do something special tonight. This place will always remind me of that picnic we had together. This time of night, twilight, seemed like a good time for us to come back here. We can watch the sunset."

"You really are something," I said gazing up into his beautiful green eyes.

He leaned further down to kiss me gently. Before anything could progress, he broke away from me leaving me pouting slightly.

Edward chuckled a little at my expression, "Bella, that wasn't the reason I brought you here tonight."

I looked up at him expectantly. I was waiting on him to explain further, but he seemed to be a little nervous. Edward ran his hand through his hair a couple times before taking a deep breath. By this time, we had stopped walking and were just facing each other on a dry portion of the sandy beach.

"Bella, I love you so very much," Edward finally said.

"I love you, too," I replied confused.

"I know we haven't really known each other very long," Edward continued, "but I can't imagine wanting to be with anyone other than you. You are my life and I would do anything for you."

"I feel the same way about you," I told him.

Edward then got down on one knee in front of me while holding on of my hands in his. I was startled by this new development.

"Bella, will you marry me?"

I knew I was gaping at him in shock. I never expected him to propose to me anytime soon. I was just planning on bringing up the marriage issue sometime tonight with him. Even though it was a shock to have it happen, I knew within my heart what my answer was.

I felt a tear of joy escape my eye as I spoke, "Yes, I'll gladly marry you."

With those few words, Edward jumped up and grabbed my around the waist twirling me around in circles. We were giddy from our happiness. After a minute or two of laughing and kissing, Edward finally pulled away. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an engagement ring.

I watched as he slid the ring on my finger. It was a perfect fit. The ring itself was something that I absolutely adored. It was a turn of the century style that fit my tastes. All I could think about as I looked between the ring on my finger and the warm green eyes of the man in front of me was that I must be the luckiest girl in the world. Edward would be my husband some day soon.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N This is the final chapter that I planned for this story. I hope everyone enjoys it.

* * *

**Almost Two Years Later**

**Bella POV**

I can still remember the night Edward proposed to me as if it were yesterday. After we finally got over our giddiness at the beach, Edward did end up taking me to a very nice restaurant. I honestly couldn't tell you what we ate because I was too busy staring into his eyes and feeling so full of happiness that I thought my chest might burst open. I guess everyone knew what Edward had planned except for me because even though we arrived back at the house late in the evening, everyone was up and reaching for my hand to look at the engagement ring that was residing there. I'm pretty sure that my smile never left my face even for a second that night.

So many things have happened since that night. A few months after our engagement, Alice and Jasper disappeared without telling anyone. All of us were so worried about them until they called the next day. They assured us that everything was okay and we shouldn't worry about them. They promised to explain everything to us when they got back home.

A week later, Alice and Jasper arrived home. I found out that they had gone to Las Vegas and gotten married over the weekend. Then they decided to stay for a little while to enjoy a short honeymoon period before answering to all of us. Edward and I were completely caught off guard by them doing something like that, but we didn't tell them that we thought it was a bad idea. Truthfully, Jasper and Alice seemed like they were meant for each other. Carlisle had to comfort Esme afterwards. I think it was mostly because she was upset that she couldn't plan part of the wedding for the couple. Later that night, I think I heard Rosalie ask Emmett when he was planning on proposing because she was getting older by the minute. I was pretty sure that it wouldn't be too long before Emmett followed through with the proposal.

It turned out that Emmett must have had a romantic streak in him as well. He took Rosalie out on the night they considered their one year anniversary from the day they first met. They went to a very nice restaurant in town for dinner. During their dinner, Emmett hired a violinist to come over to their table and play some romantic music. Then he brought out the ring he purchased from Tiffany's and proposed. Rosalie told me how she was so happy she actually burst into tears. Later they went to see _Carmen_, one of Rose's favorite operas. I'm certain that Emmett didn't care for seeing an opera, but it was nice that he loved her so much that he would sit through one with her.

Edward and I ended up getting married in December. I couldn't envision having a spur of the moment wedding like Alice, so I wanted to be able to plan something that would fit our tastes. Neither one of us liked the idea of waiting until the following year when we could have a wedding on the beach. Both of us wanted to get the wedding over with quickly so we could start living our lives together. This is why we ended up having one during the Christmas season.

Having it during this time probably made things better for both of us in ways we couldn't have imagined at first. It was easier for me, and everyone who was helping me to plan the wedding, on figuring out the color schemes and how to decorate. I just decided to go with Christmas colors, so all of my attendants wore red dresses while the groomsmen wore black tuxedos with red vests to match. Edward probably liked it better because we ended up having the ceremony in the church he grew up in.

It was beautiful inside and the church members always help to decorate the building inside and out for Christmas shortly after Thanksgiving. It was already mostly decorated, so all Alice wanted to do was to add a few fresh flower arrangements, candles, and some bows. It was nice that everyone listened to my thoughts on how I liked things and kept everything simple.

The day of the wedding brought a beautiful dusting of snow that you only see every ten years or so that far south. It was nothing compared to the blizzards that I've seen in Forks, but still pretty enough to really showcase the Christmas season.

Alice was my matron of honor for the wedding. Rosalie and Angela were my other bridesmaids for the affair. Angela flew in two nights prior to my wedding day with Ben. They were still seeing each other and had been discussing the idea of marriage. I was happy for them and wished them well. Charlie was going to be walking me down the aisle.

Alice dragged me out of bed early in the morning because I was supposed to join the girls in getting ready for my wedding. I think they had a mini spa day planned for all of us. I wanted to be with Edward, but we had been expressly forbidden from seeing each other before the wedding. I remembered how it seemed like it took forever for us to finish doing all the little things like hair, makeup, and nails that Alice felt I had to have done. Once I was finally at the church sequestered in a room with my wedding dress on, I knew that time was speeding up drastically.

I became so nervous over whether I was making the right decision, if Edward was going to be standing at the altar waiting on me or if he would skip out while he still could, or if I was just faint during the walk down the aisle. So many worried passed through my mind that everyone soon crowded around me trying to calm me down before I really did have a panic attack. I remember it so clearly as Esme was the one who finally got me to see reason.

Esme took hold of my shoulders and faced me eye to eye. "Bella, honey, are you in love with Edward?"

It was such a simple question to answer. "Of course," I said while nodding my head.

"And do you want to be in his life for the rest of your life?"

"Yes, I do," I said again.

"Honey, if you love him and want to be with him forever, then you're not making a mistake today," Esme told me gently. "Now take some deep breaths to calm yourself before you meet your future husband in a few minutes."

I took several deep breaths and our short conversation had me wanting to run out of the run right away. Instead of running away from the altar and Edward, I wanted to race toward him and to every hope and dream that I had for my future life as Mrs. Cullen.

A few minutes later, Charlie knocked on the door and spoke, "It's time, Bells."

All of us filed out of the room. Charlie took hold of my hand to walk with me toward the place where I was to enter the sanctuary. When we all reached that area, Carlisle was waiting to escort Esme to her seat in the front row. The other groomsmen, which consisted of Emmett and Jasper, paired up with Rosalie and Angela. Carlisle walked back out to our area in order to escort Alice down the aisle when it was time.

I listened for the music to begin playing and tried to slow my breathing. I was both nervous and excited at the same time. I wanted everything to be perfect today. My attendants began their walk down the aisle and I waited until it was time for me and Charlie to begin our entrance.

Finally, the cue for us began, and Charlie and I began our slow walk toward Edward. I quickly glanced around at all the decorations and found that everyone had done a wonderful job with them. The whole sanctuary reminded me of my love for Edward as well as Christmas. I then searched for Edward. It didn't take me long to find the man of my dreams standing up tall by the priest watching my every step as I moved closer and closer to him. He had one of the happiest expressions on his face that I had ever seen before. This knowledge made me one hundred percent sure of my decision today. It wasn't like I was ever really planning on backing out, but now I knew that Edward would always be the love of my life. There was definitely no going back from this point on for the two of us.

When we finally reached Edward, Charlie gave me away and placed my hand into Edward's outstretched hand. I felt home at this moment. We recited traditional vows to each other and exchanged rings. I thought my face might burst from the joy of the occasion when our priest finally announced us as husband and wife. I will always remember that first kiss.

Edward reached up to place one hand on my cheek and brought my face to his. It began innocently enough as a small chaste kiss on the lips. I think both of us ended up forgetting exactly where we were and all the people watching. Edward had ended up licking my bottom lip, which made me open my mouth to him. We were probably enjoying each other a little too much because Carlisle cleared his throat and Emmett ended up jabbing Edward in the side. We finally ended up pulling apart from each other and were brought back to the hear and now of being surrounded by a church full of people, who by this time were either chuckling or making small disapproving noises towards us. I ended up blushing a brilliant red, which caused Edward to smile even wider than he already was and kiss my cheek while whispering how I was a "beautiful blushing bride."

Edward and I walked back down the aisle together smiling at everyone. Our reception was being held a few miles away from the church inside a large hotel ballroom. Of course, Alice had decided that we needed a horse-drawn carriage to take us there, so once we finally walked outside of the church together, Edward had to carefully help me into the carriage. It was freezing outside, so I huddled up against him once he sat down beside me. Luckily, Alice had managed to think of everything and there was a warm, furry blanket sitting folded up on the seat across from us that Edward grabbed and wrapped around us as best he could.

The ballroom for the reception was decorated just as splendidly as the church was. There were large Christmas trees in the corners. All of the tables that were set up had centerpieces of fresh flowers and lit candles. There were two big factors that attributed to us agreeing to the ballroom instead of keeping it simple and having the reception at the church. One was that the church didn't have much space that could be used for dancing and I really wanted to have my dance with Edward. The other factor, which was probably more of an Alice thing than ours, was that we couldn't have alcohol at the church. The ballroom gave us a large dance floor and an open bar.

Since it took a while to travel a few miles in the carriage, everyone had arrived before us. As we walked into the ballroom, we were greeted by applause and cheers from all of our friends and family who attended. It didn't take long before music began to play and I had my first dance as Mrs. Cullen with Edward. I was soon trading dances with my dad, Carlisle, Emmett, and many others. I pretty much danced the night away with a few breaks to have some of the hors d'oeuvres that were provided by the catering service.

It wasn't long before the night was coming to a close. I threw my bouquet into the waiting crowd of unmarried women, which Rosalie managed to catch. I had to sit down in a chair for Edward to reach up underneath my wedding dress to tug the garter down. He winked at me before tossing it straight into Emmett's hands. Soon after that we were racing out of there toward a waiting car while being pelted by birdseed.

Edward kept the honeymoon destination a surprise from me the whole time. Alice even found out from him and kept it from me. Instead, she decided to pack all of my things for me and I wasn't allowed to see anything she packed until we had arrived. If it wasn't for the fact that I was so happy to be Mrs. Edward Cullen, I would have been extremely irritated by the whole secrecy bit.

We drove to the airport and hopped onto a flight to Atlanta. I was pretty sure that Atlanta wouldn't be our final destination and I wasn't disappointed by this. When we arrived in Atlanta, we hopped onto another flight that led to Miami. We arrived in Miami, but instead of leaving the airport like I thought we would, we hopped onto another flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was absolutely confident that this would be our destination. However, we ended up getting on another flight. I was looking incredulously at Edward by this time wondering what in the world he had planned. He laughed and assured me that this was our last flight, and he just wanted to do this for fun. On the way back, we would actually have only one flight change.

We ended up arriving on the island of St. Lucia in the early morning hours. Both of us were tired, but still fairly functional due to a few naps on the plane. Edward found a driver waiting for us with a sign outside the airport. We got into the small car after our luggage had been placed in the trunk and rode to the resort where we would be staying for the next couple weeks. I tried looking out the window to see the scenery, but it was too dark outside to be able to see much. I figured that we would be able to do all of that later today after we slept in a little.

We checked into the hotel and Edward led me up to our room. Of course, he had booked us the honeymoon suite there. He tipped the bellhop, who brought our luggage up for us and then closed the door so we could be alone for together.

I remembered how long I had waited for that moment to happen. Edward's eyes smoldered as he looked over me. I wasn't sure what he really saw in me with my rumpled clothes that I had been wearing for much longer than I should have, but that look was full of love and lust. I knew I was probably returning the same look to him. He stalked over to me and began kissing me feverishly. I was being walked backwards in what I hoped the direction of the bedroom was. Clothing was shed along the way and everything was perfect.

It wasn't until well in the afternoon that we made any plans to come out of that room. We managed to sleep a little during that time, so we could manage to stay awake for the remainder of the day. The rest of that honeymoon was spent sightseeing, snorkeling, and loving each other.

I smiled as I remembered those two weeks before we had to come back to Florida. When we finally arrived back home, it wasn't to the Esme's house. Edward drove up to one of those beach houses that I admired on my very first visit. It was a painted a pastel blue on the outside with a wraparound porch. I loved it immediately, but looked at him questionably.

"This is my present to you," Edward told me as he handed me the keys to the house.

My mouth fell open because I never would have imagined such a gift. I looked between him and the house for a few minutes before finally walking up to the front door and unlocking it for the first time. The house was perfect for us. It had a large kitchen that we could enjoy cooking in. There were a few extra bedrooms that could be converted into an office and a child's bedroom.

I rubbed my belly with a smile on my face thinking of how great it was that Edward had thought of everything when he purchased our home. It turned out that our time in St. Lucia was responsible for my currently very pregnant belly. I was due any day now and was feeling both overwhelmed in wondering how I would be as a mother and overjoyed with utter happiness in knowing that very soon there would be a little boy running around with hair the same shade of bronze as his father's.

We hadn't actually been told by my doctor whether we were having a boy or girl. We both decided to be surprised the day the baby comes, but I knew that it was going to be a baby boy. Of course, nobody really took my word for it so all the baby presents we had received so far were mostly items that could be used for either a boy or girl. Alice insisted on buying clothing that was pink and blue. She just said that half of it could be returned later.

I looked at the clock in the kitchen and knew that Edward should be home soon. I was making lasagna tonight because it was Emmett's favorite. He had proposed to Rose almost six months ago. She accepted and they were planning a very large beach wedding in a few months when it would be back in the upper seventies again.

I heard the door open and smiled. That would be Edward coming home from work. His residency wasn't officially over yet, but his schedule was a lot better now. He managed to be able to work normal daytime hours five days a week. Occasionally, on the weekend, he might have to work a night shift, but mostly his schedule was almost like a typical job in the office. He had decided to go into pediatrics and was working on finding the perfect location to open up his own practice as soon as he was finished at the hospital.

"Love, how are you feeling?" Edward asked as he gently wrapped his arms around me from behind and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"I have a little back pain but otherwise I'm good," I told him turning my head a bit to kiss him on the lips. "How was your day?"

"Busy as usual," Edward replied. "You're taking it easy, right?"

"I've been sitting down as much as I'm capable of," I replied with a grimace. I really didn't like having to take it easy so much. I was used to being able to get everything done quickly, but pregnancy was certainly taking its toll on my energy levels.

"Emmett and Rose should be over shortly," Edward told me.

"By the time they get here, everything should be ready," I said.

Five minutes later, I was taking the lasagna and the garlic bread out of the oven as the doorbell rang. I gave the salad another quick toss before bringing the food to the table where we would be eating. Edward had already put out four place settings around the table for everyone as well as filling everyone's glass with some red wine. Well, everyone except for me. He still insisted that I abstain from alcohol, which I didn't argue with. I didn't want to do anything that might run the risk of harming my child.

"Hey Bella, how are you?" Rose asked as she entered the dining room.

"I'm doing pretty good," I answered. "How's the wedding planning coming along?"

"I think everything seems to be going well," she replied. "I've got all the major details finished. It's just some of the minor stuff that I need to work out now."

"That's good," I said.

"Bella!" Emmett greeted as he entered the room. He gave me the tightest hug he could manage with my belly being so massive.

We all sat down and ate dinner together talking about anything and everything. Emmett made a few jokes about me resembling a whale, which earned him a smack from Rosalie. After everyone was finished with the meal, I gathered some of the plates and headed back into the kitchen to grab the dessert I made earlier today.

I was in the mood for chocolate, so I decided to make some fudge brownies. Edward followed me into the kitchen with the rest of the dishes as I set mine down in the sink. I began grabbing four plates from the cabinet nearby, when I felt a sharp pain in my belly that had me doubled over.

"Bella, love, what's wrong?" Edward asked concerned.

I sucked in a breath of air as another pain hit me again. "I think we need to get to the hospital," I managed to get out.

"Emmett, Rose!" Edward yelled. "I'm taking Bella to the hospital. I think she's in labor."

"Sure, we'll grab her stuff and lock up the house," Rosalie said calmly.

Edward nodded and picked me up in his arms as he carried me out of the house and placed me into his car as quickly as possible. I was amazed that he was still able to carry me like that after all the weight I've gained. Emmett was running out in front of us the whole time trying to hold every door open for Edward in order to save a few seconds.

Once we were both in, Edward stepped his foot to the gas and we sped down the road to the hospital. He was on his cell phone calling my doctor, so that I wouldn't have to wait for him to show up. He also called Charlie and his parents to tell them the news. Esme and Carlisle were on their way to the hospital. I was pretty sure that Alice and Jasper would end up there too as soon as Rosalie called them. I knew that it would end up being a waiting room full of people by the end of the night.

We got to the hospital and Edward helped me out of the car and into a wheelchair. I was still having contractions and they were coming very close together. Edward held my hand to comfort me while I was being wheeled into a delivery room. The whole time he was in doctor mode telling nurses how close together my contractions were and other information they needed to know.

My doctor met us in the delivery room a few minutes after we arrived. I had already changed into a hospital gown with Edward's help and was propped up on the bed with all kinds of monitoring equipment attached to me. The nurse quickly informed the doctor that I was ready to begin pushing. I pushed every time they told me to and was rewarded with a healthy baby girl at the end of about twenty minutes.

At that moment, I didn't care that I had been wrong about the baby being a boy, I was just so overwhelmed with happiness that our baby was healthy. I kissed her head and smiled up at Edward, who actually had a few tears falling from his eyes.

"What would you like to name her, love?" Edward asked tenderly caressing my face.

I thought for a moment. "How does Anna sound to you?"

"It sounds perfect," Edward said kissing both of our cheeks.

I leaned back as Edward took his turn holding our new daughter. I smiled tiredly at both of them and closed my eyes to rest knowing that life couldn't get any more perfect than this moment right now.


End file.
